Avatar: The Scarlet Bender
by A Mountain Sage
Summary: Driven to reckless means to restore her arm, Inquisitor Riona Lavellan made a poor choice. That choice landed her on a frozen tundra with no idea where she was or why the wolf in her dreams is suddenly having trouble finding her. She is left to follow a strange boy with an arrow on his head in search of answers... also, she now has the body of a twelve year old.
1. Book I - Her Phantom Limb

**1**

 **~Book One~**

 **Water** **& The Howling Wind**

 **~Chapter 1~**

 **~Her Phantom Limb~**

* * *

 _Lady Inquisitor,_

 _Our attempt to track the movements of suspected agents of Fen'Harel near Serrault have turned up nothing. We found the remains of several fire pits, but the campsites had been abandoned days ago and we couldn't pick up a trail. There was no sign of what they were doing or if they were really working for Fen'Harel. I've attached a more detailed report for the spymaster._

 _I'm sorry, I know this isn't what you wanted to hear. Hang in there Lavellan._

 _Scout Harding_

Riona let the message slip through her fingers and a heavy sigh escape her lips. The letter fell onto the desk Divine Victoria had provided as part of the Inquisition's new headquarters in Val Royeaux. The Divine's agents had furnished her with lavish apartments and enough facilities to maintain a sizable force. Cassandra well understood the importance of looking for Solas. The location also gave them easy access to the port. Yet for all its luxuries and practicality, the new headquarters felt wanting to Riona. It lacked the character of Skyhold, or maybe she just missed the days when the Inquisition held allegiance to no one, when it was just her and her friends against the world. Her friends and... She made a fist to keep herself from finishing the thought.

"Disappointing news, I take it, dear." Vivienne interjected into her thoughts. Riona turned toward the new Grand Enchanter, though she also served as the Inquisitor's favored arcane consultant these days. The elf brushed a stray strand of scarlet hair out of her eye and allowed herself a courteous smile as she turned to her friend. Vivienne was leaning back on the couch with all the ease of one born to leisure, but the hard glint in her eye told another story.

"Just another operation that has turned up nothing." Riona told her as she seated herself across from the Grand Enchanter. "Progress has been slow."

"Don't get discouraged, Inquisitor, we both know what's at stake if that madman goes unchecked." Vivienne supplied without missing a beat. Riona caught the bitterness in her tone. The Grand Enchanter wasn't fond of being fooled.

"I'm very away, believe me, but that isn't why I asked you here. Did you read the materials I sent you?"

"Yes, and then I had several of the tranquil go over it." Vivienne reach toward the table between them and lifted a wine glass. She fixed the elf with a stern gaze. "As much as I respect Dagna and the Inquisition's mages, I think it's an incredibly awful idea." Riona's heart sank, which must have shown on her face because Vivienne immediately continued. "Really darling, what were you expecting me to say? You're talking about an immensely complicated manipulation of the Fade and your own body. If I'm not mistaken, I believe I saw some of Alexius' research in those formulas."

"I need it." Riona's hand drifted to her left arm, rubbing it just below the elbow and just above where it abruptly ended.

"You still have your sword arm, dear." Vivienne offered. "But more to the point, what the Inquisition needs from you now is your leadership, not your sword on the front lines."

"It isn't that, Vivienne." The Inquisitor struggled with her words for a moment. "Not just that, anyway. It's that I think I can feel it sometimes. There are moments when I forget it isn't there and reach for something, only to be reminded of everything all over again." Her voice had gotten very thin and quiet at this point. "I work very hard not to show it, but it's driving me mad... I can't..." She had to stop, or her voice would break.

"Riona..." The Grand Enchanter's voice took on a surprisingly gentle tone as she put down the wine glass and leaned toward her comrade. "Perhaps I'm not the one you need to hear this from, but you have to give this time. You need to accept this and become accustomed, because this is your new reality. You can adjust to this, so don't do anything rash."

"*sigh* I know." The elf allowed her gaze to wander to the window, over the roofs of the Orlesian capital, glistening in the sun.

"What has the Divine said about this?"

"Cassandra said much the same as you."

"Well, let that be the end of it then." Vivienne lifted her wine glass again and reclined into the couch. "I hear you'll be embarking to Skyhold shortly."

"Yes," Riona nodded absentmindedly. "One last caravan. We're leaving a garrison and some of the mages are planning stay. All that remains to move are some weapons from the armory, Dagna's equipment, and some personal items of mine."

"I assume you'll want to say goodbye to the place." Vivienne nodded along. The elf stood and started making her way toward the window.

"Of course, I have… many important memories there." She closed her eyes as the breeze brushed her face.

"We all do, dear, we all do."

* * *

Traveling by carriage was not Riona's favorite way to travel. Even back with her clan, she'd hated riding in the aravels. Every bump in the road jolted her and motion sickness threatened to relieve her of her lunch when she looked away from the horizon line. She regretted not taking one of her own horses, but at least she'd be able to ride one of her favorite dracolisks on the way back. Now Riona found herself staring out a window impatiently awaiting the next time they could break camp and she could take a break from this slow torment.

Riona pulled a letter from her pack and carefully unfolded it.

 _Lady Inquisitor,_

 _I'm writing this to tell you about a, well, something of a ritual I've been working in with one of the mages, a lad named Cedric. He's really smart, and by smart I mean he has a great handle on how the Fade affects living beings and their development, he's also been looking at Alexius' work with time manipulation. Like I said, smart. We were both studying some of the research gathered during the war with Corypheus and got to comparing notes._

 _I don't want to get your hopes up, but we may have come up with a way to regrow your arm, or replace it, or make it like it was never gone, something along those lines. Cedric says he's going to attach the details in another missive. It's risky, but we tried it on a nug that lost its foreleg and it worked! Its coat turned bright yellow, but it worked! I can't tell you there won't be side effects or guarantee it will give you your arm back, but it could. I really think it could. Your choice, Inquisitor._

 _Arcanist Dagna_

Its creases were well worn by how many times she had looked at it. It was a terrible idea. Vivienne and Cassandra had been absolutely right and she herself well understood the danger of powerful and ill understood magic, but Riona couldn't bring herself to dismiss the idea. It represented her only real chance of getting back her arm, of being whole in a way she hadn't felt since before she went to the Conclave in the first place. It was something to hold onto. Most of her friends were gone. Bull and his Chargers had left. Sera had gone to terrorize whatever nobles struck her fancy. Varric was running a city. Dorian was on the other side of the continent. Leliana was retiring. Thom had returned to the Wardens. It was anyone's guess where Cole had gone off to. Cullen, Cassandra, and Vivienne were around but wrapped up in their duties most of the time. Where did that leave her?

Abruptly Riona realized she was no longer being jostled. The carriage had come to a stop. She turned to look out the window. They had come to a stop in the foothills of the Frostbacks. There was snow on the ground and imposing pine trees dominated the view on either side of the road. The sky was beginning to darken and the shadows cast by the trees made the forest impenetrable.

"Why are we stopping?" She called out. One of her soldiers appeared in the window.

"A tree has fallen across the road, milady." The soldier sounded young, unsure, probably a recent recruit. That was becoming a rarity. The inquisition had attracted fewer and fewer recruits after Corypheus died, now they were downsizing even further with the transition to a peacekeeping organization. "The captain says it might be a trap and suggested you stay in the carriage." Riona blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"Th-that's what he said, milady. He suggested you-"

"Does the captain think me an invalid?!" Her blood flared hot at the insinuation. Her knuckles turned white with the force of her grip on her sword hilt and she forced the door open. The soldier nearly fell over. Riona opened her mouth to offer a few choice words for the captain when an arrow shaft abruptly grew out of the carriage door between them.

"Ambush!" Someone sent up the call, all along the caravan Riona heard the sound of swords unsheathing and someone shouting battle-cries. She drew her own sword and that was when the bandits emerged from the trees. Everything after that was chaos. Riona found herself facing a bandit with a longsword. He charged her, slicing down toward her head. Though she was suddenly very conscious of her own lack of armor, she was only wearing her red formal attire, she wasn't concerned. She met the attack head on, swiping the blade aside with her own sword swing. Accustomed to the weight of her shield, Riona nearly lost her balance but compensated. She brought the sword back across quickly and sliced into the bandits poorly armored leg. He let out a cry of pain and fell to his knees. The blow that ended him came quickly.

"Ah!" Riona cried out as a sharp pain jabbed into her side. She looked down just in time to see the dagger pulling free of her bloody side. She twisted reflexively, attempting to catch the attacker with her shield… only to remember that she had no shield. Instead she stumbled awkwardly with blood dripping down her side. The bandit backpedaled away from her, daggers held tightly in hand. Riona grit her teeth and tried to ignore the pain lancing through her body. She lunged, but her attacker sidestepped. She barely got her sword up in time to block the next blow. The attacker locked both his blades with hers, pressing on her defense. In another time, she would have been able to push him off, but her remaining arm wasn't strong enough to repel his full weight. For several tense moments, they remained locked, each attempting to overpower the others. She starred her opponent in the eye, it was the only part of his face visible through his crude helm. Suddenly his eyes went wide and the bandit crumpled, an arrow shaft protruding through his back.

"Inquisitor! Are you alright?!" Her soldiers streamed into view.

"I'm fine!" She growled, even as her knees gave way and she sank down to the rapidly staining red snow. "I'm fine…"

* * *

Riona's side sent a twinge of pain through her body when she sat down at her desk at Skyhold and she hissed. The soldier had bandaged her as best they could and the healers at Skyhold had fixed her up. The area was still tender. That had been her first fight outside of a spar in the months after she lost her arm and it showed just how much she needed to relearn.

"Bandits," She muttered to herself. "I've killed over a dozen High Dragons, faced mages, red lyrium abominations and the Qunari army. Now bandits give me trouble." She allowed herself a mirthless laugh and sank deeper into depression.

"Inquisitor?" Dagna called out as she ascended the stairs. She looked around, her head swiveling like an owl's to take in the whole room. "Wow, you know, I've never been up here. It's a much better view than the Undercroft." She peered out at the night sky through the window. Riona picked herself up and tried to gather herself.

"Dagna, I want to talk about your project with the mage Cedric."

"Oh," Dagna stopped her survey and brought her attention to the Inquisitor. "Did you decide it was too dangerous? That's okay, I understand. It's a revolutionary idea, but still rough around the edges. A shame to shelve it, but I get-"

"I want to try it." Her words made Dagna stop short and stare.

"What?"

"If this ritual or technique can restore my arm," Riona took a breath. "I wanted to try it." Dagna starred for another few moments before jumping into action.

"Wow! I wasn't expecting you to go for it so soon! Great! I mean, I'll need to send someone to wake Cedric up and gather some tools..."

"Whatever you need,"

"There's something else!" Dagna cut in nervously. "We need to do it in a place where the veil is weak, to draw on the extra magic. And the best place for that is-"

"Beneath the Breach." Riona pursed her lips. "You want to go to the Temple of Sacred Ashes."

"Uh, yeah." Dagna nodded emphatically. "Exactly that. Even closed, the Veil is thin there. The Fade is closer."

"Could this ritual possibly have an affect on the Breach now that it's sealed?" If it could that would be the end of it. There were some lengths she wasn't willing to go.

"No, no! Nothing like that!" The arcanist waved her arms frantically. "We're just going to take advantage of the magic already seeping through, not drawing more out of it, no risk of remaking the Breach." Riona mulled over that for a moment.

"You're sure there's no risk?"

"Not of affecting the Breach, definitely!"

"Alright then," Riona stood from her desk, again wincing as she strained the wound. "Gather your materials Arcanist, we're going on a trip."

"Great!" Dagna was practically bouncing on her heels. "I'll get Cedric and we'll go out ahead, we'll be waiting for you Inquisitor." She half ran half skipped out of the room. Riona began her own preparations. She garbed herself in the fur armor she had received for her friendship with Stone Bear Hold and descended. Riona would retrieve her preferred dracolisk from the stables and head out, but first she had a stop to make.

She stood in the Great Hall staring into the ground floor of the tower. She stood there long enough that twice a patrolling soldier stopped to ask if she was alright. When the elf could no longer put it off, she entered. She remembered those two years before the Exalted Council, every time she entered this room and looked at his work on the walls, she felt a pang of unresolved emotions. Now, after all she had learned, that feeling was raw and heavier at the same time.

"Solas, I will prove you wrong." She muttered under her breath. "Once I have my arm back, I'll chase you myself."

* * *

"You're sure this will work?" Riona eyed the elaborate runes drawn on the ground dubiously. Her dracolisk beside her scratched at the edge of the circle as if to mirror her misgivings.

"Well, I hope you didn't drag us all the way out here in the middle of the night to back out now." Cedric muttered under his breath. He was a middle age man with a wiry frame and a perpetual scowl on his dark bearded face. His glum cynicism was offset by Dagna's energy as she double checked and adjusted the ruins with a manic fervor.

"Sure? Mostly! Don't worry Inquisitor!" She shouted. Several Inquisition soldiers lurked a good distance away from the ritual, eyeing the proceedings with distrust and unease. Riona couldn't blame them.

"Please take your place in the center of the circle, Inquisitor." Cedric indicated where she was to stand. "And raise your arm, the missing one I mean, when I say." Cedric shuffled to the edge of the circle where he removed a talisman from a small metal box. Riona took her position and squashed her misgivings. This was the point of no return. She glanced the up at the shimmering scar where the Breach used to be, attempting to draw strength from the glowing testament to what she had accomplished.

"Ready, Inquisitor?" Dagna shouted from the edge.

"As I'll ever be," Riona said to herself. To Dagna she shouted, "Yes, begin!" The excitable dwarf smiled and extricated herself from the runic circles. The talisman started levitating in Cedric's hands, emitting a soft glow that spread to the runic circle. Instantly the air around her felt electrified, like a lightning spell inches from her skin.

"Raise your arm!" Cedric shouted. She did, and the crackling sensation intensified around her raised limb. The feeling started to build, arcs of energy slicing through the air. Riona could feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

"This is a bit more intense than before!" Dagna shouted about the growing din.

"We've never attempted this on anything larger than a nug before!" Cedric shouted back. "This is expected, it will stabilize!"

"What?!" Riona shouted at them.

"You'll be okay!" Dagna assured as she started leading through her notes with a look of intense concentration. "Probably!" Riona would have replied back, but the energy around her was reaching a crescendo. A whirlwind of crackling green energy was rapidly forming around her. The energy seemed to be holding her in place. She couldn't drop her arm of she tried. This was looking more and more like a terrible idea. She would have to send letters of apology to Cassandra and Vivienne, assuming she got out alive. The energy kept pressing in on her, pressing painfully into her flesh like whirling hot irons. The elf felt it digging into her flesh and beyond her flesh. Riona screamed. Then, in a blinding flash of light, the growing cyclone of energy vanished. The runic circles faded. The talisman stopped glowing and fell into Cedric's hands.

And Riona Lavellan had vanished.

Cedric and Dagna looked at each other, then at the scorched spot where the Inquisitor had been standing, then back at each other. Cedric summed up both their thoughts succinctly.

"Shit,"

* * *

 _The twigs of the bush tugged lightly at the fabric of her dress as she passed by. Sunlight trickled down through the branches to light her path alongside the stream. Riona knelt by the river to wash her hands. She didn't notice the eyes watching her until she looked up, the glinting eyes of a wolf sitting just across the stream in a pile of bushes. She knew that attempting to reach it would be fruitless. For she had had this dream many times before._

 _But something was different this time. The wolf emerged from the brush, watching her intently. Riona reached out a hand toward him, but something held her back. Then that same something started pulling her back away from the stream. She tried to resist but her feet weren't touching the ground anymore. The landscape started zipping by her faster and faster. The wolf gave chase, bounding after her like a bolt of dark lightning. The verdant forest gave way to darker and more twisted shapes. Trees twisted into jagged limbs and claws. Twisting darkness became trees. The only constant Riona could see in this shifting medley was the wolf, still chasing her, still with eyes only for her, barking frantically._

 _The trees and twisting shapes gave way to barren plains of black ice. Riona was accelerating faster and faster. The wolf was falling farther and farther behind. When it was but a speck on the horizon, a massive bolt of light pierced the sky, sending cracks through the fabric of the sky itself. Simultaneously, an agonizing sensation shot through every nerve in Riona's body. She let out a wordless cry. Then everything went dark._

* * *

"Ugh" When awareness finally returned to Riona, her head was pounding as if an Ogre had started slamming her into the ground. Opening her eyes, she quickly figured she was inside some kind of tent, wrapped in furs and warmed by a central fire pit. She wasn't dead then, though she still felt off. The Inquisition soldiers must have carried her to some shelter. That much was a relief, but it wasn't her most pressing concern.

Did it work?

With some effort Riona extricated her left arm from the furs and let out a cry of joy as she wiggled five fingers in the firelight. It worked, her arm was back! She could kiss Dagna she was so happy! But wait, did her hand seem smaller than usual? Come to think of it, her voice sounded a little strange too.

"Oh, you're awake!" The new voice yanked her from her own thoughts. Riona retracted her hand as her eyes focused on the newcomer entering the tent. When the stranger stepped into the firelight, Riona realized two things: first that the stranger was a girl, barely more than a child, and second that she may have been hasty in assuming she was in Inquisition custody. The girl looked like nobody Riona had ever met. Her skin was dark, but she didn't look Rivaini and a pair of bright kind cerulean eyes looked down at her curiously. The new girl raised her hands in a placating gesture. "It's okay, you're safe. My name is Katara."

"Where am I?" Again, her voice sounded strange to her own ears, just a little too high pitched.

"Our village, the Southern Water Tribe." At her blank look, Katara frowned. "The South Pole?" Riona shook her head. "So where are your parents?"

"Parents?" Riona's brow furrowed. What an odd question to ask... The pieces fit themselves together so suddenly she found herself breathless. Katara could see her concern.

"What's wrong?" She knelt down next to Riona. The elf lifted the edge of the furs and stared down at her own body. The Water Tribe appeared to have dressed her in their own garments, but the body beneath the garb clearly did not have the shape of a battle hardened slayer of dragons and would be gods. Instead, she saw the body of a child, thirteen years old at most she would guess. In a daze, she muttered, "I am going to kill Dagna."

* * *

 **Author's Note: I've been battling writer's block for a particular scene in my _Titan of Rapture_ story, yes the new chapter is coming. One day I was contemplating the consequences of _Dragon Age: Inquisition_ 's _Trespasser_ DLC and watching a new video about why _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ was such a phenomenal series. Something clicked and I knew I wanted to start writing it.**

 **I felt tossing a fully realized powerful adult character into the Avatar team would seriously disrupt the charm and dynamic of the trio. They run the risk of becoming more of a chaperon than a friend and companion. A kid, even one who is only outwardly a kid, stands a better chance of connecting to them as a peer. So that was my rationale for de-aging the Inquisitor. It also means she's weaker, especially since she's a warrior accustomed to relying on physical strength, which makes for a better arc as she needs to train and get more powerful, just like the other members of team Avatar.**

 **I have developed an explanation for how precisely Riona ended up in the Avatar world and how it is connected to Thedas, which I will reveal with time, probably at the winter solstice episodes. There will also be some added Dragon Age related plotlines and threats, so this won't be a just a retread of the Avatar plotlines with an extra character.**


	2. Book I - The Girl with Scarlet Hair

**2**

 **~Book One~**

 **Water & The Howling Wind**

 **~Chapter 2~**

 **~The Girl With Scarlet Hair~**

* * *

Riona gazed at the surface of the still water. A young elf girl stared back. Her emerald eyes set in a freckled face framed by shoulder length scarlet tresses. Every time she saw her own reflection, she had to do a double take. It was definitely her own face, but too young. Her freckles were more prominent, her features still showed signs of lingering baby fat and together with other small discrepancies they made the sight of her face just alien enough to be unsettling. Her vallaslin hadn't returned with her renewed youth though, which was a small blessing.

"Riona!" Katara's call yanked the elf out of her contemplation. She turned away from the water's edge. The waterbender waved as she approached. Riona suspected the reason Katara was so thrilled to have her around was simply the lack of other girls her age around the village, but the compassionate girl was growing on her.

"Hi Katara," She said, smiling in spite of herself. As she approached, Riona was confronted with perhaps the most annoying aspect of her transformation: her height. She'd had a late growth spurt as a girl and elves were smaller than humans to begin with. Katara was a full head taller than her despite them being physically about the same age. "I was actually about to go looking for you. I have a few questions."

"Oh, sure." The water ended glanced toward the village over her shoulder. "Let's talk on the way back, I still have some chores to do." For that matter, Riona was supposed to help Gran Gran prepare meals today. The Southern Water Tribe had been gracious enough to let her stay in the week since her arrival, but that meant pulling her own weight. She didn't mind actually. It reminded her of growing up with her clan in the Free Marches.

"Alright," Riona took a breath as they fell into step beside one another. Katara had been the one to answer a lot of her questions when she first arrived. She spoke of three major nations. Each was renowned for a specific type of bending, which was some kind of extremely specialized elemental hedge magic as far as she could tell. There was also a fourth culture that had died out. And none of them had ever seen or heard of an elf before. Katara was one of these benders, a waterbender, which she had been happy to demonstrate when Riona was skeptical. "You told me about the war with the Fire Nation. You said it had been going on for a hundred years?"

"Yeah..." Katara instantly became somber. "They say the Fire Nation is close to conquering the Earth Kingdom. My father took our warriors to go fight there two years ago."

"I see... " Riona looked on the waterbender sympathetically. She'd seen the same look on the face of refugees uncertain what had become of their loved ones. "I'm sorry, I hope they're safe."

"Thanks," Katara smiled. "Hey, can I ask you a few questions too,"

"Of course…" Riona tried not to let her exasperation show. She had been hesitant to share details about herself. The elf didn't know how to explain the disparity between her physical age and her actual age, so she let them think she was a child. So she gave them vague details about Thedas and her life with Clan Lavellan, that was strange enough to them that they didn't think to ask for more. Though Sokka still swore she must be a Fire Nation spy.

"Okay then," Katara said as they entered the village. The younger children stopped what they were doing for a few moments to stare at her, and not just her ears. Red hair seemed just as alien to them as pointed ears and they hadn't become used to seeing either yet. "I was wondering, have your people ever heard of the Avatar?"

"Refresh my memory."

"You know, the Avatar! Master of all the elements, sworn to bring balance to the world?"

"Oh," Riona blinked. "No, I don't think I've ever heard of anything like that. We have mages, people who can use the elements, but not like you do." She remembered some of the stories she'd heard of this Avatar figure in the village. It sounded like just a story to her, but then again the Inquisitor had been the subject of such stories not too long ago.

"Well, I was just thinking," Katara continued. "If where you live is so far away that you've never heard of the Avatar, maybe that's where he's been these last hundred years."

"I guess it's possible," Riona said doubtfully. "But what brought me here was a freak magical accident, so I don't know where home is from here…"

"I'm sorry we can't help you get home," The waterbender stopped and turned toward the elf. "Have you at least been sleeping better?" There was a good question, for the first time in months the wolf had been absent from her dreams. Instead of comforting her, his absence was unsettling. Where could she have gone that _he_ couldn't touch her dreams? Last night's dream had taken her back to the tundra, that strange light pierced the sky again but this time there was fire burning away the ice.

"Better, yes." She lied. "We can talk in a little bit, Katara, I need to get some practice in before my other."

"Oh, alright, just look out for Sokka, he gets really jealous when you practice your sword skills."

"Thanks," The memory of leaving the young water tribe warrior sprawled out on the ground when he tried to assert that he was the better warrior.

"Speaking of, me and Sokka are going to take a canoe out fishing later. Want to come?"

"Sounds better than helping Gran Gran wash clothes. I mean, sure, that sounds great!" Riona recovered and forced an enthusiastic smile. She kept it up until Katara was out of sight. Then she went to the tent she had been sleeping in and pulled out a rolled up pelt. The elf carefully unrolled it to reveal one of the few items that had made the trip, Mi'Hellathen, her sword. Riona held it up to the light. It was relatively unadorned, heavily weighted toward to the end of the blade. She'd had it made based on designs they'd discovered in the Deep Roads and given it an elven name. It was a good sword, it was also very heavy.

When she talked about practicing with it, she meant reinventing her fighting style. At her reduced size and strength, she found that she needed to alternate between holding the blade with one hand and both hands to properly handle the momentum of the weapon. If she ever encountered enemies in this form she would have to be more mobile, standing and taking hits as she used to with sword and shield wasn't an option. That initial fight with Sokka had been much closer than she wanted to admit. So Riona chose a spot just outside the village and began practicing, shifting through movements she hoped would allow her to use her weapon effectively in real battle.

Knowing her luck, she'd be encountering a real battle soon enough…

* * *

 _Frigid winds tore at her numb face as she squinted against the icy pinpricks of a blizzard. Riona couldn't see anything. There was no light, only cold biting darkness. Panic began to rise in her throat. She fell and hit hard slick ice. The elf struggled to find some purchase but there was none to be had. She slid helplessly in the howling dark, until she hit water. The shock of the cold ocean forced all the air from her lungs and paralyzed her for several precious seconds. For those precious seconds, she sank into the inky depths, the cold striking to her very bones. She tried to breath only to take in the dark water. Suddenly her limbs burst into activity, clawing her way through the water, but which way was up?_

 _Riona blindly flailed in the blackness, but then there was a light, at once brilliant yet gentle, above her. The elf swam towards it. Even as darkness began to close around her vision, she broke the surface and gasped for breath. That was when she saw the source of the light. It was an iceberg, glowing with an internal blue-green gleam. It was translucent, and at the center of the light was a silhouette, one that looked like… a child?_

 _Her attention was swiftly torn away from the glow by a sound at the edge of hearing, the sound of a wolf's howl in the distance…_

* * *

Riona woke with a gasp. She saw blue sky above her head and heard water. It took her a moment to remember where she was.

"Hey, rise and shine! Just in time to see how real fishing is done!" Sokka bragged as he leaned intently over the edge of the canoe with spear in hand. Riona sat up and rubbed her eyes with a groan. She must have dozed off after she joined Katara and her brother for their fishing trip.

"Another bad dream, huh?" Riona twisted around to look at Katara, who was sitting at the back of the boat.

"You could say that... it feels like something's hunting me."

"Hunting you?" Katara's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Hey girls, hunting _fish_ is what's going on here, be quiet!" Sokka snapped. Katara's older brother was a lanky boy with a partially shaved head that fancied himself a comedian and an alpha male. Riona scoffed at him.

"Well _sorry_ for interfering with your attempts to show off." Sokka didn't seem to hear her. He stabbed at the water with his spear. He growled in frustration when it came up empty.

"Dang it! You distracted me!" He wheeled on the elf and jabbed in her direction with his spear point.

"Hmph." She folded her arms and looked unimpressed. Sokka glared at her for a few moments, then turned back to the water, grumbling to himself.

"Stupid girls, always ruining things…" After awhile he seemed to regain his composure and returned his focus to the water's surface. "It's not getting away from me this time, watch and learn, girls. This is how you catch a fish." Riona sighed, wishing she'd thought to ask for a spear of her own. She scanned the horizon until she heard a splashing sound behind her.

"Sokka, look!" Riona looked up to see a globe of water hovering in the air over her head with a fish swimming inside it. Her jaw dropped in surprise and she twisted around to look at Katara, who was moving her hands with a look of intense focus on her face.

"Shhhh," Sokka shushed his sister without looking up. "Katara, you're gonna scare it away. Mmmm… I can already smell it cookin'!" Riona could already see where this was going, even if neither sibling did. She edged away from Sokka as the water globe passed over her head.

"But Sokka, I caught one!" Katara called as her brother cocked his arm back to thrust his spear, driving the butt of it straight into the water globe. Sokka was soaked instantly as Katara lost control and the water globed 'popped' right over his head. Riona yelped as some of the freezing water splashed her. Sokka wheeled on his sister in exasperation.

"Ugh, why is it that every time you play with magic water I get soaked!?"

"It's not magic, it's waterbending." Katara matched his exasperation. Riona tried to squeeze the water out of her borrowed water tribe coat before it froze as she did her best to ignore the squabbling siblings. "and it's-"

"Yeah, yeah, an ancient art unique to our culture, blah blah blah." Sokka was trying to squeeze the water out of his own hair. "Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

"You're calling _me_ weird? I'm not the one that makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water." As Katara and Sokka were talking, Riona sighed, being around these two seemed to make her do that a lot, and resumed scanning the horizon. Then she froze.

"Um, guys?"

"What!?" Sokka shouted. She pointed in front of them, at the field of icebergs the current was carrying them into. The same current that seemed to be speeding up alarmingly.

"Aah!" Both water tribe siblings screamed as their canoe was dragged into the pack ice. Riona couldn't stop herself from joining in as they bumped up against one of the icebergs.

"Watch out! Go left! Go left!" Katara shouted at her brother as the ice collided around them. All the elf could do was grip the sides of the boat until her knuckles turned white. The canoe narrowly slipped between the ice by narrower and narrower margins. Riona couldn't tell if the waterbender's instruction would do any good, there seemed to be icebergs everywhere. Then all at once, their luck ran out. Three icebergs converged on them at once. Riona and the water tribe sibling scrambled up out of the cane just as the hull began to crunch under the force of the ice.

They landed on top of the closest piece of ice. Sokka and Katara gained purchase on the edge, but Riona slipped a little too far and her head went straight into the cold water at the other end of the iceberg. The cold was shocking, but a pair of hands pulled her back up on the iceberg with the rest of her body. She gasped for breath and did her best to hold onto the edge between her two comrades as the current tossed them around. Eventually the seas calmed and the three of them simple lay panting on the iceberg for a few moments.

"You call that left?!" Katara snapped at her brother as they pulled themselves up to sit on the ice.

"You don't like my steering. Well, maybe you should have _waterbended_ us out of the ice."

"Ugh, both of you shut up, please." Riona's teeth chattered. Her wet hair was already starting to stiffen in the frigid air. "Can we concentrate on getting out of here?"

"Well maybe Katara can _waterbend_ us out." Katara grit her teeth at her brother's comment.

"Well maybe _I will_."

"Yeah, sure." Sokka said dismissively. "If you can get that right. I knew I should have left you home, leave it to a girl to screw things up."

"Sokka, keep talking if you want me to push you off this piece of ice." Riona chattered. Katara's reaction was more explosive. She was quivering with frustration and rage, then she exploded.

"You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained..!" Riona wasn't really paying attention, being occupied by how cold she felt, but started when the ice beneath them started to heave. "Ugh, I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since Mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!" Now Sokka noticed it too and the two of them gaped at the massive iceberg looming behind Katara, or more accurately at the massive fractures appearing on it as Katara spoke.

"Uuh, Katara?" Sokka croaked. Riona didn't say anything, she was still in shock. She had never seen Katara manipulate anything larger than a puddle in the time she'd been here.

"I even wash all the clothes!" Katara shouted over her brother, shoving her finger in his face. "Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, NOT PLEASANT!" More fissures erupted from the ice. Riona found her voice finally.

"Katara, maybe you should-"

"No! Not anymore." She threw up her hands and glared at her brother. "I'm done helping you. From now on, you're on your own!" With that final shout, Katara threw down her hands and the the iceberg went with them. With a thunderous _crack_ it split down the middle and huge chunks fell into the water, creating waves that sent all three of them back to clinging to the ice.

"Oh not again!" Riona grit her teeth as she swore to herself she would never go fishing with these two ever again. "What's wrong with you two?"

"Don't look at me!" Sokka cried.

"You mean I did that?" Katara seemed awed by her own abilities

"Yes Katara, you did do that." Riona said exasperatedly. "Almost drown us, that is." She muttered that last part.

"Congratulations." Sokka added. The elf contemplated that this was probably the worst fishing trip she had ever been on, probably because it was the only one that might well end with her freezing to death. That was when all three of them noticed that the water in front of them was starting to glow. To Riona it looked… familiar. The light grew larger and larger, something was approaching the surface. The three of them scrambled backwards on their piece of ice as another larger iceberg broke the surface. Riona gasped. It was a sphere, a huge glowing sphere of ice. There was a figure at its center.

It was exactly what Riona had seen in her dream.

"How…" She had no idea how that was even possible. Then something even stranger happened. The figure's eyes began to glow, then strange arrow shaped marking on his head and limbs began to glow with a white light.

"He's still alive!" Katara cried. "We have to help!" She snatched up Sokka's weapon and began running towards the strange iceberg, leaping across smaller pieces of floating ice to reach it,

"Wait, I don't think that's a good idea!" Riona started to her feet and started after the waterbender. Running towards a strange magical phenomenon rarely had good results in her experience.

"Katara!" Sokka, surprisingly, agreed with her as they both chased after his sister. "Stop! We don't know what that thing is!" Neither of their words seemed to have any effect on the willful waterbender. When she got to the iceberg, she immediately began hammering at it as hard as she could. Almost as soon as Riona and Sokka landed next to her, the ice began to fracture. Then it exploded into a blinding white light that forced the trio to shield their eyes. A great pillar of light pierced the sky… Just like the one she'd seen in her vision the day she arrived.

Sokka covered his sister with his own body to shield her. When the light cleared, the trio looked up to see that most of the iceberg had vanished. The boy, for it was clearly a boy, stood at the edge closest to them. His eyes and markings glowed brightly. Sokka leveled his spear at the boy and Riona wished she had brought her sword.

"Stop!" He barked. The boy stood above them as the glowing energy faded. Then he went limp as a sack of potatoes and toppled forward, sliding down the ice toward them. Katara lunged forward to catch him and stop him from sliding too far. Riona quickly moved to stand beside to get a better look at this strange boy. His clothing was strange and the arrow shaped markings appeared to be tattoos, otherwise he looked unremarkable. Sokka poked his head with the butt of his spear.

"Stop it!" Katara smacked the spear away and turned to the boy. Riona found herself leaning in closer to get a better look. The waterbender turned the boy over so they could see his face. His eyes fluttered open and his breathing was shallow.

"I need to ask you something." He whispered.

"What?" Katara leaned in.

"Please… come closer."

"What is it?" Katara asked again as she leaned in further. Riona's mind was working fast as she too leaned closer to hear what the boy had to say. That vision she had when she got here was clearly linked to this boy. He could very well have the answer to getting her home.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?" Or not.

"Uh, sure, I guess." Katara gave the boy a weird look, but otherwise took it in stride. Suddenly the wind began to pick up and the trio could only stare as the wind itself seemed to push the boy upright onto his feet. Sokka screamed. Riona had seen enough magic not to be too fazed… but hadn't Katara said…

"What's going on here?" The boy asked as he looked around. He looked just as surprised at waking up at the south pole as they were to find him, though also strangely unperturbed.

"You tell us." Riona found her voice, this was all interesting enough that ignoring how cold her wet head was became easy. "You're the one that just emerged from a glowing iceberg."

"How?!" Was all Sokka could exclaim as he poked the boy with his spear. The boy swatted the spear away absentmindedly as he scratched his head.

"I'm not sure." Just as he spoke, an incredibly deep animalistic groan came from behind him, behind the remaining wall of the iceberg. He brightened instantly and started scrambling back up the ice. Riona opted to follow the water tribe sibling in walking around the ice instead.

"Appa! Are you alright? Wake up, buddy." They could hear the child talking as they walked around. Turning the corner, Riona realized that the iceberg now resembled a crater with a hollowed out basin in the middle except one side that had dissolved entirely. Riona openly stared and felt her jaw drop when she saw what was in that basin. The strange child was getting licked by the most bizarre creature the Inquisitor had ever seen, which was saying something. It was huge, covered in white fur with a brown pattern resembling an arrow on its head. It's body looked to be several meters long with a flat tail nearly as long and wide as its body, which was supported by six legs. A pair of thin horns jutted out of its huge fluffy head. It seemed to be wearing some kind of saddle on its back. The good news was that its big mouth was filled with flat teeth, so it _probably_ wouldn't try to eat them. The boy was ecstatic, hugging the beast's head. "Haha, you're okay!"

"What is that thing?!" Sokka said what they were all thinking.

"This is Appa," The arrow-headed boy said matter of factly, "My flying bison." as if that explained everything.

"Right. And this is Katara, my flying sister." Sokka didn't miss a beat.

"It doesn't even have wings." Riona muttered, mostly to herself as she stood at Katara's side. It annoyed her that she was actually agreeing with Sokka so frequently just now.

"He doesn't need wings, he-" The boy started, but cut himself off as Appa reared his head. The beast's nostrils flared and then he gave the loudest sneeze Riona had ever her, sending a splattering of thick, viscous, green mucus splattering all across Sokka's right side. The teen was frozen in place for a moment, a look of growing horror on his face.

"Ewww! Aah!" He frantically tried to wipe the mucus off and threw himself to the ground in an attempt to scrape it off on the ice

"Don't worry, it'll wash out." The boy offered as Sokka struggled.' "So, do you guys live around here?" Riona was about to say 'Not me' but got interrupted.

"Don't answer that!" Sokka shot up immediately, having surprisingly rid himself of most of the mucus. He leveled his spear at the boy again. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably trying to signal the Fire Nation!"

"That's a bit of a leap, don't you think?" Riona offered. "He's a kid, how do you get that from an inexplicable bolt of white light?"

"Yeah, I mean look at him." Katara added. The all glanced at the boy and he grinned at them. It was actually kind of adorable, Riona had to admit. Katara smiled back and indicated her brother with her a hand gesture. "The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. And this is Riona, who we actually just met a week ago. You never told us your name."

"I'm A…" The boy wrinkled his nose. "aaaahhhh... ahhhhhh... aaah aaah aaah," Riona discretely stepped behind Katara to avoid any more projectile mucus. "AAAAAAACHOOOO!" Rather than send disgusting mucus flying everywhere, the boy sneezed at the ground.

Which sent him flying straight up into the air, over ten feet up. The elf decided to stop feeling surprised by anything this boy did. He gently floated back to earth and wiped his nose.

"I'm Aang."

"You just sneezed," Sokka stared incredulously, "...and flew ten feet in the air!"

"Really?" Aang glance up. "It felt higher than that."

"So, does that mean you're a…" Riona started but Katara finished.

"An airbender!" The waterbender gasped.

"Sure am." Aang grinned.

"Giant light beams... flying bison... airbenders... I think I've got Midnight Sun Madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense." Sokka did an about face and marched to the edge of the iceberg… where he stopped when he realized they were still trapped on an iceberg.

"Well, if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift." Aang offered. He airbended himself up onto Appa's head. Riona folded her arms dubiously.

"You really think that thing can fly?"

"Of course he can, right Appa?" The airbender reached down and rubbed the bison's head.

"What she means is, we'd love a ride. Thanks!" Katara nudged the elf as she ran to clamber up onto the giant saddle on the beast's back. Riona sighed. She supposed the only other option was freezing to death anyway. She followed Katara and Aang reached down to help her climb onto the huge creature's back. The elf sat down and considered the airbender for a moment. He seemed strange, but she rather doubted he actually held some secret that would get her home at this point. Still, there was definitely some connection between them...

"Oh no, I am not getting on that fluffy snot monster!" She looked up to see that Sokka hadn't moved from where he stood.

"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home?" His sister was unimpressed by his attitude. "You know… before you freeze to death?" Sokka started to say something but gave up before the words left his lips. Riona settled herself near the rear of the saddle as Sokka climbed aboard, rubbing her arms to stay warm. She had always hated the cold, even before getting lost in that blizzard after Haven was destroyed. That Skyhold's magic seemed to keep the temperature within the walls eternally pleasant was one of the few reasons living in the remote mountain fortress was tolerable. She found herself daydreaming about the warm fire in the hearth at Skyhold. What was going on back there now? No doubt her vanishing had set off a panic. Had word of her disappearance gotten to Val Royeaux yet? Cassandra would probably have Dagna and Cedric locked in the Undercroft until they found some way to bring her back. She would be very cross.

"Okay, first time flyers, hold on tight!" Aang's voice dragged her back to the here and now. "Appa, yip yip!" He shook the reins. Appa let out another low growl and with a flap of his enormous beaver-like tail he launched into the air… only to come crashing down into the water a second later and start swimming. Aang shook the reins again. "Come on Appa, yip yip."

"Wow, that was truly amazing." Sokka deadpanned.

"Appa's just tired," Aang defended his furry friend. "A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see." They cruised in silence for a few moments before Riona heard Katara speak.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" Riona couldn't actually see the airbender from where she was sitting, but she groaned internally.

"Oh... I was smiling?" Aang said.

"Great, now I have to deal with adolescent crushes." Riona muttered to herself. Sokka summed up her feelings rather nicely.

"Uuuuugh…"

After a time it became dark. Sokka was the first to fall asleep. Katara stayed up long enough to ask Aang if he knew the Avatar, he claimed he didn't. Riona listened and waited. When Katara closed her eyes, the elf crawled up to the front of the saddle and looked down at the bald airbender.

"Aang,"

"Hm?" He looked up her and smiled. "Oh, hey Riona."

"I was wondering if I could ask you some questions… and maybe you have some questions for me." She began slowly.

"Oh, sure, why are your ears pointed?" Riona blinked. That was unexpectedly blunt. "I mean, they look cool, but I've never met anyone with pointed ears before."

"Okay then, we'll start with that." Riona let out a breath. "They're pointed because I'm an elf. I'm not human and I come from very far away.."

"Really? Wow." Aang scratched his head, impressed but not sure what to do with the information. "So how did you end up fishing with Sokka and the South Pole?"

"There was an accident involving magic, I did something reckless." That was about as much as she told Katara. "But as I arrived I had a… vision, I guess, maybe a dream."

"About what?"

"You, I think." Aang's eyes widened in surprise. She continued, "I saw that bolt of light you gave off when you got out of the ice. Then, just before we found you, I dreamed about you in the iceberg."

"Wow, what does that mean?" Aang leaned forward eagerly.

"I was hoping you could tell me." Riona sighed. "I was hoping you had some idea how I could get home."

"Oh," Aang blinked then hung his head. "I'm sorry, I don't know anything about that…"

"I see…" Riona tried not to let her disappointment show, but didn't do a very good job of it. Aang looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned widely.

"But I do have Appa! We can fly you home!" He was so excited it was hard not to crack a smile, but Riona shook her head.

"I don't even know where home is from here." Riona said miserably.

"Well," Aang looked thoughtful again. "I've flown around all over the world, throw some names at me, maybe I'll recognize one." Somehow Riona doubted a boy with arrow tattoos and a six legged bison could visit Thedas discreetly, but stranger things had happened.

"Orlais,"

"Nope."

"Ferelden,"

"No,"

"Tevinter,"

"Nope,"

"Antiva,"

"Wait…. No,"

"Thedas?" Riona let out an exasperated sigh as Aang shook his head. "Well, thanks for trying."

"Sorry I wasn't able to help." He looked dejected.

"Don't worry about it." She felt a pang when she looked at him, she understood the feeling of helplessness when you wanted to help someone and didn't know how. "I'm going to get some rest, thanks Aang."

By the time they arrived in the village, Aang was dead to the world, sleeping like a rock. Riona helped Katara carry him to into the village, where they lay him under a blanket in one of the tents. While Katara regaled her grandmother with the story of what had happened, Riona went to her own tent for a night of fitful sleep. Her dreams were once again filled with dark skies and the howling of a distant wolf…

* * *

"Hah!" Riona cried as her swing beheaded a snowman. She smiled down at the fallen snow head with satisfaction. She was finally getting the hang of her new fighting style, though the elf wasn't just practicing for her skills. Practice kept her mind off the nightmares that assaulted her sleeping mind last night. Aang hadn't been present in them, but she'd once again found herself in darkness, pushed and pulled by storm with a wolf in the distance. The wolf was looking for her. _He_ was looking for her, she was sure of it. What gnawed at her was why, both why he was so desperate to find her and why it was so hard. He'd never have difficulty entering her dreams before.

And now she was thinking about it again, time to start swinging. With another cry she whipped Mi'Hellathen around and sliced through the snowman's torso, barely letting its snowy girth slow down the blade.

"Mr. Snowdrop!" The cry surprised Riona so much she nearly let the momentum rip the sword from her hand. She looked to see one of the little village girls on her knees in the snow, staring at the fallen mound of snow in horror. "You killed Mr. Snowdrop!" She wailed, distraught. Riona looked down at the mound of snow. Oh. Oops.

"Um…"

"Hey, Riona!" Just then, Aang swooped down from the sky on the gliding contraption he had revealed earlier in the morning. Riona had missed the display, but she'd seen him crash into Sokka's attempt at a watchtower from a distance. He zipped by her, throwing up a wake of snow with the wind of his passage.

" _Gack!_ " Riona got a face full of it, lost her balance and immediately fell flat on her back into the snow. " _Umph_." She heard the start of little girl's giggle. The elf forced herself to sit up. Seeing Riona get knocked over with snow on her face seemed to cheer the girl up. She was watching Aang now, following his glider through the air with open mouthed excitement. All the children of the village seem to have fallen in love with the energetic air nomad. The airbender came down for a landing right beside her.

"What're you doing?" He asked as if he hadn't just knocked her over.

"I _was_ practicing." She grit her teeth as she pulled her sword from the snow to show him.

"Woah, neat!" He said as he examined the blade. "Did this come from where you come from?"

"Yes."

"She killed Mr. Snowdrop." The little girl pouted.

"Sorry, but how was I supposed to know that your snowman was so important to you?" Riona protested grumpily. The girl glared at her and opened her mouth to talk but Aang put his hands on each of their shoulders and crouched between them.

"Hey, I have an idea." He looked at the little girl with a big smile. "How about me and Riona help you build Mr. Snowdrop the Second!"

"Are you kidding?" Riona looked at him critically.

"Trust me, it'll be fun!" Aang assured her. "Let me help you get started." With that he twirled his staff and tracing a circle above his head with it. Gusts of wind whirled around him and Riona raised a gloved hand to shield her face as the wind pushed the snow together around him. By the time he was done, there was a mound of snow as tall as he was in front of him. The little girl squealed in delight at the show. She rushed to the snow mound and started compacting chunks of it into a rough ball.

"Aang, I really don't-" Riona started, but Aang was already on his hands and knees, pushing snow together.

"Come on! You owe her a snowman." The elf rubbed her temples at his antics before finally relenting. The snowman started to take form slowly thanks mostly to Aang and the girl's enthusiasm. Despite herself, Riona began to find their energy infectious. When the snowman's second layer began to topple towards the little girl, the elf reflexively moved to hold it up with her hands.

"Woah, okay there?" She asked the girl. At her nod, Riona asked, "Um… What's your name?"

"Miki," The little girl squeaked as she padded the snow.

"Well, uh, nice to meet you Miki, I'm Riona." Riona gave the little girl an awkward smile. When she actually thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she'd been around a child this young. It might have been one of the younger children in the clan before she'd left for the Conclave. Almost three years ago...

"Ready?" Aang popped up from the other side of the snowman, already done with the head.

"Just a moment," She firmed up the snowman's middle and paused. Then she looked at Miki. "Do you want to…?" The girl nodded vigorously. Riona nodded back. "Aang, give her the head." As the airbender handed off the last piece of the snowman, Riona grabbed Miki under the arms and lifted her up. Thankfully swinging around a heavy sword had its advantages. The child was easy to lift, even at her current stature. Miki plopped the head on the finished snowman with a satisfied grin and Riona realized that the airbender had taken the time to draw an arrow on its head.

"That is a good looking arrow." Aang quipped as he took a few steps back to survey their handiwork. As Riona let down Miki, the little water tribe girl looked up at her and smiled.

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome." Riona rubbed her neck sheepishly and smiled back. She knelt to pick up her sword and noticed Aang looking at her with a pleased expression on his face. "What?"

"It's good to see you smile," He grinned as if to demonstrate. "I know you want to go home, but you can't be glum all the time. That's not good for anyone."

"I suppose that's true." She breathed. "Thanks, Aang."

"You're welcome! I'm gonna go look for Appa now, see you later!" With that he was off, kicking up a flurry as he took to the air with his glider.

"My, that must be convenient." Riona said as she watched him go. Then she set about looking for the pelt she used to wrap the sword. She was going to need a new sheathe eventually...

* * *

"Weeee!" Riona heard a child's voice just as she found Aang again. It looked like he'd found Appa. The village children were using the flying bison's back and tail as a slide, laughing and giggling as they launched themselves into a pile of snow. Riona didn't bother holding back a smile.

"Stop it! Stop it now!" Sokka stormed up to them. "What's wrong with you? We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!" Aang frowned.

"What war?" He hopped down off Appa to stand by Sokka. "What are you talking about?" The older boy gave him an incredulous look.

"You're kidding right?" The airbender looked like he was about to respond, but he suddenly focused on something behind Sokka. His eyes bulged.

"PENGUIN!" He shouted at the top of his lungs and suddenly he was speeding across the landscape past Sokka and Katara like the wind itself was carrying him, which it probably was. The young warrior looked to his sister.

"He's kidding, right?" Katara didn't answer her brother, she started after Aang.

"Two of you in a week," Sokka grumbled and glanced at Riona. "What, have you both been living under a glacier the past hundred years?" The elf gave him an unreadable look. "What?"

"You may be right…" She muttered as she began following Katara. She obviously had no way of knowing about this hundred year war, but Aang appeared to be from a culture Katara had told her was extinct, had been since the beginning of the war. Could Aang really be over a hundred years old? By the time she caught up with Aang and Katara, they were amidst a large flock of… penguins was the word Aang had used. They were some variety of flightless bird creatures with four flippers in place of wings and whiskers on their faces. Most of them were wandering around aimlessly, a few were sliding down slopes on their stomachs.

"Aang, I'll help you catch a penguin if you teach me waterbending." Katara was saying as she walked into earshot.

"You got a deal!" Aang smiled, but it quickly faded. "Just one little problem. I'm an airbender, not a waterbender. Isn't there someone in your tribe who can teach you?"

"No," Katara cast her gaze down and turned away. "You're looking at the only waterbender in the whole South Pole." For the first time since she'd met him, Aang looked perturbed.

"This isn't right. A waterbender needs to master water. "What about the North Pole? There's another Water Tribe up there, right? Maybe they have waterbenders who could teach you."

"Maybe." Katara said doubtfully. "But we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in a long time. It's not exactly 'turn right at the second glacier.' It's on the other side of the world!"

"But you forget: I have a flying bison. Appa and I can personally fly you to the North Pole. Katara, we're gonna find you a master!"

"Always trying to help," Riona muttered to herself. "Reminds me of someone," Katara didn't look so certain about the idea. Aang noticed her approaching.

"Riona! Want to go penguin sledding too?"

"Uh, sure," She glanced at the waterbender. "Planning a trip?"

"I mean...:" She looked conflicted. "I want to learn, but I don't know. I've never left home before."

"Well, you think about it." The airbender didn't seem at all bothered by her ambivalence. "But in the meantime, can you teach me to catch one of these penguins?" Katara smiled back. Aang seemed to have a way of putting a smile on people's faces. She assumed a tone of mock wisdom.

"Okay, listen closely my young pupil. Catching penguins is an ancient and sacred art. Observe." She produced a small fish from her coat and tossed it to Aang. Penguins instantly began swarming him, attracted by the tiny meal.

"Coming?" Katara asked Riona. The elf cast a look at the strange animals.

"Huh, 'when in Orlais' I guess. This will be… new, at least."

* * *

"Aaaah! Hah ha!" Riona was breathless, her energized by a mixture of fear and exhilaration. Aang whooped and Katara laughed ahead of her as they plunged down the slope aboard their flightless steeds. She had worried about hurting the poor things, but they didn't seem to mind holding a child's weight. Using such a strange animal as a sled might just make the list of the strangest things she'd ever done... Aside from walking the Fade, time travel, drinking from the Well of Sorrows, get turned into a child and... Okay, maybe it wouldn't make the list, but she still felt absurd doing it.

"I haven't done this since I was a kid!" Katara laughed.

"You're still a kid!" Aang cried as he sped ahead.

"Oh no," Riona's eyes went wide as she watched the pair head into a tunnel in the ice. She grit her teeth and nudged her penguin in the right direction, praying she wasn't about to smack into a dead end or sharp corner. She couldn't hold back a short scream as she sped into the tunnel. Light from holes in the tunnel lit her path. The elf could hear Aang and Katara's laughter echoing behind them. Then she emerged, sunlight blinded her for a moment as she slowed down. When she came to a stop, Riona stood off her penguin. The penguin found its own footing and started wandering off with a series of indignant honking noises.

"Whoa…" Riona heard Aang say as she shielded her eyes from the sun. She followed the sound of his voice. "What is that?" Her eyes finally adjusted when she was just behind the other two. A massive dark shape was silhouetted against the sun, a ship atop an outcrop of ice but unlike any ship Riona had ever seen before. It was made entirely of metal, with some sort of chimney instead of a mast and sails. A tattered flag still flew from it, a black flame on faded red. It definitely didn't look like anything the water tribe was capable of constructing.

"A Fire Navy ship, and a very bad memory for my people." Katara's voice had turned deathly serious.

"Fire Navy…" Riona muttered to herself. That would mean this ship belonged to the nation that had plunged the whole world into war, according to Katara. Her theory so far had been that what Katara thought constituted the whole world was just one region. This ship seemed to suggest something a bit bigger than she first thought. Aang started towards the ship.

"Aang, stop!" The airbender stopped short at Katara's shout. "We're not allowed to go near it. The ship could be booby trapped."

"If you wanna be a bender, you have to let go of fear." He smiled and continued toward the ship. Riona actually thought Katara had a good point, but she was curious about this Fire Nation. She went after Aang and the waterbender followed hesitantly. They made their entrance through a hole beneath the waterline of the ship. The interior was utterly silent, only shadows and the wind remained in the metal hulk. Riona noted pipes running along the wall, though she had no idea of their purpose.

"This ship has haunted my tribe since Gran Gran was a little girl. It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks." Katara explained as they wandered into a room that looked like an armory, filled with frost covered spears, swords, and clubs. None of them had familiar designs.

"Okay, back up." Aang frowned as he picked up a spear from the wall. "I have friends all over the world, even in the Fire Nation. I've never seen any war."

"Aang, how long were you in that iceberg?" Katara gave voice to the question that had been on Riona's mind for an hour now. The elf folded her arms and watched the airbender closely.

"I don't know…" Aang shrugged. "A few days, maybe?"

"I think it was more like a hundred years!"

"What? That's impossible. Do I look like a hundred and twelve year old man to you?" The airbender turned on them both with a skeptical look.

"I've seen stranger things," Riona supplied. They both gave her odd looks but she pressed on. "If there was no war last time you traveled to this 'Fire Nation', and the war really has been going on for a century, it stands to reason that you may have been in that iceberg a lot longer than a few days." Aang put a hand on his forehead and stumbled backwards, a shocked and disturbed look on his face, then sat on the floor.

"A hundred years! I can't believe it." Riona tried to think of something comforting to say to him, but Katara beat her to it. She kneeled by the airbender.

"I'm sorry, Aang. Maybe somehow there's a bright side to all this."

"I did get to meet you." Aang looked up at Katara. She smiled back.

"That's sweet, Aang." Riona wasn't sure whether to smile or roll her eyes. They were cute kids. "Now, let's got out of here." Katara helped Aang to his feet and they set off through the halls of the ship with Riona leading the way. The dark cold corridors were starting to make all of them uncomfortable, all of them except for Aang.

"Aang?" Katara whispered. Riona turned to see the airbender stepping into another room. "Let's head back, this place is creepy." The girls followed him into the room.

"Huh?" He said, just before a very ominous click. Riona jumped with a yelp as a metal grate screeched down behind them, blocking the door. All three of the kids immediately rushed to the grate, but despite its age it was still quite solid. Aang looked at the two girls sheepishly. "What's that you said about booby traps?"

"What's that?" Riona said, looking back into the room. Old pipes seemed to come alive, shaking and whistling with pressure. Hot steam hissed from joints worn by the strain of years. There was a sound like a small explosion, then the ship seemed to settle. The pipes stopped shaking as the ship settled back into its icy grave. That was when they saw the flare. This room had windows and was raised above the rest of the ship. A smoke trail from somewhere below them led straight up into the sky where a bright flare burned above them.

"Uh oh," Aang looked at a flare, then to a hole in the ceiling. "Hold on tight!" Was all the warning he gave before he swept Katara off her feet. He looked at the elf. "Be right back!" He leapt up through the hole with a gust of wind. Riona blinked at his sudden exit, then looked up through the same hole he had left through. The flare was slowly falling toward the ground. Katara had told her that the last raid had been years ago. The Fire Navy probably wasn't so close that they'd see the flare.

Or at least that was what she hoped.

* * *

By the time the trio had returned to the village, the sun was setting and what looked like the entire tribe had assembled to wait for them. Whether or not the Fire Nation could see the flare, the village certainly could. Sokka looked both angry and unusually serious. As they approached, the village children surged forward and gathered around the airbender.

"Yay! Aang's back!"

"I knew it!" Sokka stormed through the children and pointed at Aang accusingly. "You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare! You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?"

"Sokka, stop." Riona stood in front of the airbender and gave the water tribe boy a stern look. "The flare was an accident, a trap on the ship, Aang wasn't trying to signal anyone."

"Oh yeah, well what about you?!" He jabbed his finger at her chest. "We don't know you, maybe both of you are Fire Nation spies!"

"That's ridiculous!" Riona bit back.

"Oh yeah, well… your hair's red!"

"What?"

"The color of the Fire Nation!"

"...That is the stupidest logic I have ever heard."

"Katara," Gran Gran interrupted their exchange, shaking her head. "You shouldn't have gone on that ship. Now we could all be in danger!"

"Don't blame Katara!" Aang broke in. "Or Riona, I brought them there." He looked at the ground and bowed his head. "It's my fault."

"Aha! The traitor confesses!" Sokka pounced on his admission. "Warriors, away from the enemy! The foreigner is banned from our village!" The children hesitated, then started moving away from Aang back into the village. Katara stepped up and glared at her brother.

"Sokka, you're making a mistake!"

"No! I'm keeping my promise to Dad. I'm protecting you from threats like him!"

"Aang is not our enemy!" Katara gestured to the airbender. "Don't you see? Aang's brought us something we haven't had in a long time. Fun." Riona stole a look at Aang. He had helped have some fun, that was true. While she was fighting Corypheus, she had helped Sera play pranks to make sure people forgot their troubles. A crisis was exactly the time to remember that there is more to life… She frowned. When had she forgotten that?

"Fun? We can't fight firebenders with fun!"

"You should try it sometime." Aang grinned earnestly. Sokka was not amused.

"Get out of our village. Now!" Frustrated, Katara turned from her brother to face her grandmother.

"Grandmother, please, don't let Sokka do this."

"Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden." The old woman said firmly. "Sokka is right. I think it best if the airbender leaves."

"Then I'm banished too!" Katara snapped. She turned and grabbed a confused Aang by the arm. She started dragging him in the direction of Appa. "C'mon, Aang, let's go!" Now Riona stood between them and found herself feeling conflicted, unsure if she should stop Katara from doing something rash or go with them

"Where do you think you're going?" Sokka shouted at his sister

"To find a waterbender! Aang is taking me to the North Pole!" She shouted right back. Aang, however, seemed oblivious to the seriousness of the situation.

"I am? Great!"

"Katara!" This time her brother's voice brought her to a stop. "Would you really choose him over your tribe? Your own family?" Riona walked up to Katara and saw indecision in her face. She had long abandoned the idea of returning to her own clan… but Katara was still a child.

"You should stay, you're too young to go off on your own like this."

"You're the same age I am." The waterbender responded. Riona almost said 'No, I'm over twice your age', but bit her lip. Who would believe her now? Luckily Aang came up next to her.

"Katara, I don't want to come between you and your family." The airbender offered her a smile, then walked towards his giant bison. Katara and Riona looked after him, both filled with mixed emotions.

"So, you're leaving the South Pole? This is goodbye?" Katara said unhappily. Aang turned around in front of Appa to face her.

"Thanks for penguin sledding with me."

"Aang…" Riona started, unsure how to start.

"Maybe you should come with me, Riona." Aang looked to the elf. "Maybe some of the other Air Nomads have heard of your lands."

"I…" That was exactly the question she was currently mulling over. Riona knew that if she was ever going to find a way to go home she would need to leave the South Pole. She also knew that there was some connection between her journey and this boy. But… if the Fire Navy really was as close as Sokka feared, then they would be heading towards the village soon. The village only had Sokka for protection… so no protection at all. She sighed. "I don't think so, Aang. Where will you go?" Aang put a hand on Appa.

 **"** Guess I'll go back home and look for the airbenders." He looked thoughtful, as if something had just occurred to him. "Wow, I haven't cleaned my room in a hundred years. Not looking forward to that." With a spinning movement of his arms and body, Aang seemed to glide up to Appa's head and took the reign. He looked back at Riona and the assembled water tribe. "It was nice meeting everyone."

"Let's see your bison fly now, air boy." Sokka folded his arms contemptuously.

"Come on, Appa, you can do it! Yip! Yip!" The airbender encouraged his bison. Appa made another long deep noise and got to his feet.

"Yeh, I thought so." Sokka dismissed the effort. Riona was restraining the urge to hit him for his attitude when a tiny girl, Miki she realized, rushed out ahead of the other children with a cry, forcing her way between Katara and the elf.

"Aang! Don't go! We'll miss you!"

 **"** I'll miss you too." The airbender said sadly. He took one more lingering look at Katara, then shook his reins. Appa started trudging away from the village and his rider's new friends. "Come on, boy." Miki started sobbing. Riona reached out a hand to the little girl but she ran right past, straight into the village. Gran Gran came up to them and addressed her granddaughter.

"Katara, you'll feel better after you –"

"You happy now?" The waterbender wheeled on her and snapped. "There goes my one chance of becoming a waterbender!" Katara stalked off toward the village angrily, leaving her grandmother with a helpless expression on her face. Sokka was directing the village boys through the 'gate'.

* * *

"All right! Ready our defenses! The Fire Nation could be on our shores any moment now!" He shouted at them, driving them into a frenzy of preparation. Riona made her way to the tent and gathered her sword. She practiced until it was dark as Sokka directed his tiny soldiers to help shore up their defenses. When she went to sleep, she kept her blade within arm's reach and prayed that she was wrong, that nobody had seen that flare...

 _The sky was once again black as pitch, but this time she was in a forest of barren trees with towering black trunks. She was running as fast as she could through the forest. A wolf's howl echoed through the woods, but she couldn't figure out if she was running away from the wolf or trying to find him. All the trees looked the same, several times she realized she was treading in her own footprints. The trees whipped past, twigs tore at her exposed skin, then all at once the trees gave way to a clearing. Riona slowed to a stop, panting for breath She looked up to see a massive black shape looming above her. It was a ship, the ship from yesterday, its metal skeleton groaning in the cold wind. A flickering light appeared within the windows and gaps in the hull. It grew and grew until roaring fire burst from every seam of the ship. Riona threw her hand up to shield herself from the flames as the heat rolled over her…_

Riona awoke in a breathless sweat, feeling like the fire was beneath her skin. She sat up with a gasp and adjusted her collar. She had a feeling that she would go crazy if she couldn't do anything about these nightmares. The elf was so caught up in her dream it took her a moment to notice the shouting and screams coming from outside. Riona snatched up her sword and took a moment to steady her breath. Then she emerged into the village. It was chaos. The villagers were scrambling about every which way. It took her a moment to spot Sokka, standing atop the snow wall staring out into the mist.

The ice below her was shaking. Parts of the wall and Sokka's treasured watchtower had crumbled. A ship emerged from the mist, a loud cracking noise pervaded the air as it forced its way through the ice. It's massive black iron shadow loomed over the village, over twice the height of Sokka's wall. It wasn't stopping. Sokka wasn't moving.

"Move, Sokka, now!" Riona shouted as she bounded toward the stubborn warrior. Whether it was bravery or he was just petrified, Sokka didn't move. By the time Riona had pounded up the path to reach him, the ship was almost upon them both. "Sokka!" She grabbed him by the arm and the wall gave way beneath their feet. They struggled to stay upright as the ship pushed the collapsing snow down into the village. Riona lost her footing with a cry and fell off to the side. She went face down in the snow. When the elf picked herself up, spitting snow as she went, she saw that Sokka had amazingly still standing and the ship had come to a stop.

A column of steam rose between the hull and the ice. Then another hiss of steam signaled the prow of the ship dropping, revealing itself to be a ramp. Sokka yelped and fell back to the ground as the descending ramp nearly crushed him. Riona's grip on her sword tightened. Armored figures emerged from the belly of the metal beast, clad in red and black armor of a style she had never seen. Some carried spears. Their leader was startlingly young, only a teenager by the looks of him, but Riona's eyes were drawn by the scar covering the flesh around his left eye. This boy was no stranger to pain and danger She braced herself. That was when Sokka decided to charge their leader with an adolescent warcry.

"Sokka!" Riona grit her teeth, he was going to get himself killed charging in like that. The leader expertly kicked his weapon out of his hand, then kicked Sokka himself in the head, sending him headfirst into a snowdrift. The elf backed up to stand by the villagers. The Fire Nation soldier walked past Sokka and surveyed the village. When his gaze fell on her he did a double take, but then seemed to remind himself why he was here.

"Where are you hiding him?" He was met with silence. Riona wasn't sure what to do. She doubted her ability to handle even this group let alone however many troops were on the ship. Abruptly the lead soldier reached into the crowd and pulled Gran Gran forward, holding her in front of the village. "He'd be about this age? Master of all elements?" Riona blinked. Could he be talking about…

His face twisting in frustration, the soldier shoved Katara's grandmother away and unleashed a gout of flame over the heads of the villagers. So this was firebending. "I know you're hiding him!" That was when Riona attacked. She charged the nearest soldier, slashing from the left with all her strength. She struck him in the side, failing to pierce his armor but knocking him to the ground. She turned to move on to the next, ducking a fiery kicked and lashing her sword out at his leg. He fell to the ground with a crack of fractured bone and a cry of pain. The elf stood again only to find herself facing the enraged leader as he unleashed a burst of fire at her. The world seemed to slow down as the flame approached her. Then something tackled her to the ground as the plume of flame roared overhead and singed her hair. She was shocked to see Sokka kneeling over her. He flung his boomerang at the soldier, who barely dodged it.

"Show no fear!" One of the village boys chanted and tossed a spear to Sokka. The teenage water tribe warrior charged his enemy with the spear, only for it to be shorn to pieces against his armored wrist guards. The armored soldier snatched what was left of the spear away and poked Sokka in the forehead with it comically before snapping it in half. The water tribe warrior sank to his knees in a disorientation with his enemy looming over him. That was when the boomerang came back, smashing into the back of his helmet with a resounding _clang_. The soldier made an aggravated noise and fire sprang from his hands.

Then a blur swiped the soldier's feet out from under him. The blur slowed to a stop in front of the villagers and Riona stared in disbelief as the penguin pushed Aang off its back and waddled away. The airbender waved as the the children started to cheer for him.

"Hey Katara! Hey Riona. Hey Sokka."

"Hi...Aang." Sokka replied dryly. "Thanks for coming." Aang stood and face the firebenders, staff in hand. Riona got to her feet and stood with the villagers. It struck her that she was hiding behind a twelve year old boy, but she was clearly out of her current depth in this fight. The soldier rose to his feet revealing a mostly shaved head with some kind of ponytail in the back and assumed a combat stance. Aang swung his staff and sent two air blasts at the Fire Nation soldiers trying to surround him, driving them back. The airbender sent a third at their leader. He shielded his face with his forearms, but held his ground. "Looking for me?"

"You're the airbender?" The soldier said incredulously. "You're the Avatar?"

"Aang?" Katara seemed shocked.

"No way…" Sokka's voice was filled with disbelief.

"..." Riona stayed silent, she merely stared intensely at the airbender and thought about everything Katara had told her about the legend of the Avatar. He was an airbender, he had been in the ice a hundred years, all the pieces fit. It also meant that people would be placing the burden of saving the world on his shoulders whether he liked it or not. The elf couldn't claim to fully understand everything, but she had some understanding of what it could feel like to be thrust into that situation.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter." The soldier huffed. "Training. Meditating. You're just a child!"

"Well, you're just a teenager." That response seemed to set the firebender off. He launched fire blast after fire blast at the young airbender, who twirled his staff in front of him as they circled one another. His airbending dispersed the fire, but did not stop it fully. The villagers cringed and cried as the embers flew around them. Riona saw Aang look at them over his shoulder, concerned. He stopped spinning his staff after the next fireblast and held it out in front of him. "If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?"

"Aang, you can't trust him," Riona blurted out. Aang didn't reply. He stared silently at the firebender. After a few moments, the firebender straightened and offered a curt nod. He gave over his staff and allowed the soldiers to lead him toward the ship. Katara rushed forward.

"No, Aang! Don't do this!"

"Don't worry, guys, it'll be okay." Aang grunted as one of the soldiers shoved him roughly. "Take care of Appa for me until I get back."

"Head a course for the Fire Nation," The lead soldier ordered. "I'm going home." They entered the great metal vessel and the gangway began to rise.

" _No_!" Riona hissed. She sprinted toward the rising gangway and leapt, seizing the edge and dangling from it as it raised.

"Riona!" Katara cried.

"What are you doing?!" Sokka shouted incredulously. That was a good question, she realized. She held fast to the prow of the ship as it rose high above the village and the ship began to recede back into the sea. The elf grit her teeth as her muscles began to burn with the strain of just holding on. When the prow finally stopped rising, Riona dropped her sword onto the deck and winced at the clang it made against the metal deck. She had never trained for stealth. The elf pulled herself up onto the deck of the Fire Nation ship with a gasp. She would need to work on her upper body strength.

Fortunately there appeared to be nobody on deck. By the time she had picked up her sword a hatch had opened up on the deck. Riona froze. There was small table with some kind of game involving tiles on it someone had set up on deck. Riona scrambled over to it and flipped it, huddling behind it. It was a tight fit. She cautiously stuck her her head out just enough to see what was going on. The Fire Nation soldiers clambered out onto the deck, Aang tied up between them. Their leader carried Aang's staff, running his hand along it as he stood opposite the young Avatar.

"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." He said. "I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks. Take the Avatar to the prison hold." He shoved the staff into the hands of a rotund bearded older man beside him. "And take this to my quarters." As the soldiers began moving around, Riona huddled behind the table, waiting for the sign of slamming hatch that would signal her opening.

"Hey, you mind taking this to his quarters for me?" She heard what must have been the older man speak. Riona waited several moments. She heard another metal hatch open and footfalls vibrating through the metal deck below her. Some of them were coming closer. Her breath caught in her throat and she froze.

"Oh, it looks like cutting through the ice has disrupted my game." A disappointed voice reached her. Before she could react the shadow of the older man was looming over her. Their eyes met, hers filled with fear and his filled with bewilderment. Her grip on her sword tightened, but the man shook his head, a tiny subtle movement.

"Sir?" Someone said behind him. "Need any help?"

"No, no, I'm quite fine." The old man turned and smiled toward the voice. "Thank you," His smile faded as he looked back at her. "I don't know who or what you are, but Zuko isn't after you. You need to leave." With that, he vanished from her view. Riona stayed there for a few long minutes. When she crept out, he was gone. She took a few breaths to steady her breathing, then stole toward a hatch in the side of the ship.

* * *

"The Avatar has escaped!" Riona heard the cry as she rushed through the halls of the ship.

"You've got to be kidding me." She grumbled. Apparently her help was entirely unnecessary. Aang had freed himself within minutes of her entering the ship. She had greatly underestimated his abilities. So now the elf was pounding through the halls looking for an exit while trying to avoid the squads of guards charging around in search of the escaped airbender. She was cursing herself for her impulsiveness when a trio of Fire Nation soldiers rounded the corner in front of her.

"That girl was in the village!" One of them shouted and pointed at her. "Get her!" They charged her. One of them jabbed at her with a spear. Riona hadn't even fully come to a stop. She brought Mi'Hellathen up just in time to redirect the thrust. The second thrust his spear at her as well. The elf was forced to twist awkwardly to avoid it, throwing herself off balance. She tumbled to the ground with a cry and dropped her sword. The third soldier stood above her, he reached down to grab her. Riona lashed out with her fist to smack the arm away. There was a flash of light and heat. The soldier stumbled back with a cry of pain as he struggled to put out his flaming uniform. The elf and the other two soldiers all stared at her fist, dumbfounded.

Riona had just firebended.

Luckily she came to her senses before the soldiers did. Riona grabbed one of their spears and ripped it from his grasp. She took out his legs before the other had started moving. By the time he started to thrust his spear, she struck him in the head with the haft. He bounced off the wall and crumpled. The elf charged the third man just as he succeeded in putting out the fire on his clothes. He looked up just in time for the butt of the spear to strike him squarely in the head and knock him straight off his feet. Riona panted from the exertion, but she realized that she recognized where she was now, she could get out from here. When she turned she frozen. Behind where she had been when the guards spotted her one of the doors was opened. Just outside the door, the old man from earlier was staring at her, as if he too had witnessed what she had done. He probably had.

The elf bolted, sprinting around the corner toward the deck. A hundred questions flew through her mind at once, but she had no time to think. When she finally found the hatch, Riona threw all her weight against the heavy metal door. She burst out onto the deck just in time to Aang and the lead firebender, Zuko she remembered the older man calling him, tumble to the deck in a heap, the airbender clutching his staff.

"Aang!" Riona breathed a sigh of relief as the pair got to their feet facing each other and fell into fighting stances. Aang's was to her. He looked over his shoulder at the sound of his name.

"Riona?" He was shocked to see her. Zuko might have taken advantage of his distraction, be he seemed as surprised as Aang. Actually… he seemed to be looking past her.

"What is _that_?" Riona turned to follow the firebender's gaze to see… a giant six legged bison.

A _flying_ giant six legged bison, carrying two familiar figures.

"Fenedhis." She swore, not believing her eyes. "Andraste's-" The sound of fire burning through the air cut her off and she turned to see Zuko throwing fire blasts at the Avatar once more. Aang spun his staff above his head, lifting himself off the ground to avoid the flames. He landed by the edge of the deck, nearly falling over the side. Zuko didn't miss a beat. Aang dispersed two more fire blasts before a third made him drop his staff. Riona was paralyzed, unsure what to do or what she could do to help Aang. He made a great show of acrobatic skill evading several more, until one maneuver brought him to stand at the very edge of the deck, teetering above the icy waters. A plume of fire aimed at his feet sent him over the edge.

"No!" Riona rushed to the edge. She could hear Katara calling out the airbender's name desperately as a crushing weight settled on the elf's heart. She had failed. He would freeze to death quickly in that water if nobody pulled him out. She could slay dragons and fight gods, but saving a child was beyond her reach now. Riona sank to her knees. A sudden sound drew her attention to the front of the ship and she didn't believe her eyes for a moment. Atop a swirling cyclone of water rising out of the cold sea and towering above the ship was Aang, his eyes and tattoos glowing with a white light just as they were when she first saw him in her dream.

"Aang? You're waterbending..." She murmured numbly. He hadn't been able to do that before. The Avatar's pillar of water set him down on the deck. He pulled it with him, spinning the water around him like a flowing wall. Then he released it, sending it forcefully outward across the deck. Riona threw herself to the ground with a yelp as it passed over her head. Zuko and his men weren't so lucky. The water struck them with such force that they were tossed from the deck with cries of indignation. The light faded from Aang's eyes and tattoos. His knees shook and he started to fall. Riona was there in an instant, catching the boy and cradling his head. "Aang! Can you hear me, are you alright?" The airbender groaned as he pried his eyes open, but smiled at her.

"Hey, Riona, what're you doing here?"

"I was trying to save you... though it looks like I wasn't needed."

"I appreciate it," He said with genuine gratitude as a loud _thump_ signaled Appa's landing behind them. Katara and Sokka leapt off the bison.

"Aang! Are you okay?" Katara rushed to the airbender's side.

"Hey Katara. Hey Sokka." He said, obviously still drained. "Thanks for coming."

"Well, I couldn't let you two have all the glory." Sokka boasted.

"Sokka, how about you get his staff." Riona helped the wobbly airbender to his feet and toward Appa. "We need to leave, five minutes ago."

"Got it!" Riona didn't watch him go. She was helping Aang clamber up onto his bison, though he seemed to be regaining strength quickly.

"So that was the power of the Avatar..." She allowed herself to muse as she sat down across from Aang. He had displayed more raw power than she'd ever seen from all but the strongest mages and wielded it with more versatility than any. She had a lot of questions, but they could wait until they were safely away.

"Ah!" Sokka shouted. Riona whirled to see him holding one end of Aang's staff. The hand holding the other end belonged to none other than Zuko, clinging to the edge of the deck with an expression of pure rage. That was until Sokka jabbed him three times in the head with the staff, knocking him back off the deck and out of sight. "Ha! That's for the water tribe!"

"Well at least poetic justice seems to exist in this strange place." Riona muttered to herself as Sokka did a celebratory jig. She surveyed the deck. The soldiers not swept into the sea by Aang's attack were getting to their feet and advancing. "Hurry up!" She shouted. Katara saw the soldiers too. Her face creased in concentration, she waterbended some of the leftovers of and Aang's water cyclone into an amorphous pillar as tall as her shoulder. She made a sweeping motion toward the soldiers, but instead the water flew backwards.

"Katara!" Sokka cried as his feet were encased in ice.

"I take everything back, you two clearly need my help." Rion deadpanned. She reached for her sword... and remembered that she'd dropped it in the ship. "Fenedhis," She swore as she snatched up Aang's staff and leapt off the bison to help the teenage warrior, who had started hacking at the ice with his boomerang. She started bashing the ice with end of the staff. The ice was thick, but gave easily enough.

"Hurry up, you two!" Katara called. Glancing over her shoulder, Riona could see that Katara had apparently had better luck on her second try. Three Fire Nation soldiers were frozen in place under a layer of ice.

"I'm just a guy with a boomerang; I didn't ask for all this flying and magic." Sokka grumbled to himself.

"Get used to it." Riona bit back as she broke open the icy prison surrounding his feet. "Let's go!" Together they rushed back toward the flying mass of white fur and climbed aboard.

"Yip yip! Yip yip!" Sokka shouted. Appa seemed to respond to that, as the bison instantly threw itself into the air. Riona screamed. She'd never flown on anything before in her life and now she was soaring through the air on one of the most unlikely creatures imaginable. She looked behind them at the ship, just starting to recede into the distance. The older man she'd seen earlier was helping Zuko back onto the ship.

"Shoot them down!" The firebender shouted. He and the older man assumed mirrored poses and moved in perfect sync, launching a massive ball of fire straight at the fleeing bison. Riona's eyes grew wide as panic gripped her. Then she realized there might be a way to stop it. She had firebended earlier, maybe she could disperse it. But was that what she'd done? Could it have been magic, was she a mage now? She had no idea how she'd done it, let alone how to disperse a giant fireball. Luckily fate took it out of her hands, or rather Aang did. The airbender stood with his staff and swung at the fireball, creating a massive gust of wind that redirected the fireball into an iceberg.

The iceberg exploded, sending several tons of snow and ice crashing down onto the bow of the Fire Navy ship, burying the front of ship completely. Aang, Katara, and Sokka started laughing. Riona couldn't help but laugh with them. It was one part absurdity and one part relief. They had survived and for the moment it felt like everything would be okay.

* * *

"Good news for the Fire Lord." Iroh watched the flying bison disappear in the distance without looking at his nephew. "The nation's biggest threat is just a little kid."

"That kid, Uncle, just did this." Zuko indicated the buried prow of their ship. "I won't underestimate him again. Dig this ship out and follow them!" He turned and shouted at his men, only to see they were already occupied using controlled firebending to thaw out their compatriots the waterbender had encased in ice. "As soon as you're done with that." He amended.

Iroh looked after the fleeing children contemplatively, then examined the strange sword dropped by the equally strange girl in the ship. Her appearance was odd enough, but the sword was unlike any blade he had ever seen and when she had attacked that soldier with firebending... She looked just as surprised as he felt when he saw her do it. It was peculiar for someone to discover bending at that age. Normally a child discovered their bending much earlier. The girl was an enigma, one intriguing enough to look into.

* * *

"How did you do that? With the water? It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" Katara exclaimed, giddy at the idea of learning how to do such a thing herself one day, no doubt. Aang was sitting cross legged at one end of Appa's saddle. He had a much more somber expression than Riona had come to expect from him.

"I don't know. I just sort of... did it."

"Why didn't you say you were the Avatar?" Riona asked. She thought she knew the answer, but wanted to hear it.

"Because... I never wanted to be." Airbender said, obviously depressed by the thought. The elf nodded. She understood perfectly well.

"But Aang, the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war." Katara objected gently.

"No pressure," Riona muttered. Aang gave the waterbender another sad look.

"And how am I going to do that?"

"According to legend, you need to first master water, then earth, then fire, right?" The gears were almost visibly turning in Katara's head.

"That's what the monks told me."

"Well, if we go to the North Pole you can master waterbending." That put a smile on the airbender's face. He perked up instantly.

"We can learn it together!"

"And along the way, we can see if anyone knows about where Riona is from." Katara smiled at the elf.

"That... would be great, that's a great idea." Riona blinked at Katara in surprise. "Thanks." Spending time with the Avatar would also give her the opportunity to figure out what connection there was between Aang and her dreams. And if Aang was going to learn about firebending, perhaps she could also learn about this bizarre new skill. Speaking of which, she should probably tell them about it.

"And Sokka," Katara continued. "I'm sure you'll get to knock some firebender heads on the way."

"I'd like that. I'd really like that." Sokka said dreamily. On the other hand, maybe she should keep her new ability to herself for the moment.

"Then we're in this together." Katana pronounced with a broad smile. Aang produced a scroll.

"All right, but before I learn waterbending, we have some serious business to attend to," He airbended himself over to the middle of the saddle and unrolled the scroll. It was a map. Riona scanned it eagerly for familiar landmasses but there were none to be found. Aang started pointing to places on the map. "here, here, and here."

"What's there?" Katara asked.

"Here," Aang pointed to a spot on the eastern portion of what Riona assumed was the Earth Kingdom going by the coloration, "We'll ride the hopping llamas. Then waaaay over here,". He pointed to an archipelago of southern islands, "We'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish. Then back over here we'll ride the hog-monkeys. They don't like people riding them, but that's what makes it fun!"

Well, it promised to be an interesting journey.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So there you have it, she's a firebender. How do you think Sokka will react when he finds out? What might happen in a moment when she loses control of her untrained bending? What's up with the nightmares? Anyway, leave a review if you like it. And if anyone is a decent artist or knows a decent artist that would be interesting in drawing a redheaded tween elf girl firebending, contact me. Better cover art would be appreciated.**

 **Riona's sword, Mi'Hellathen, was created from the Revered Defender Longsword schematic from The Descent DLC. If I have my elvish right, it should translate to "** **Blade of Noble Struggle** **". Imagine it a little smaller than it is in game, otherwise there's no way Riona could carry it around now. Most Dragon Age weapons are obscenely oversized to begin with.**

 **I considered implementing a language barrier, but ultimately it didn't seem to be worth the trouble.**

 **I'm hoping to get some feedback on my writing of Riona as a character. I realized as I was writing her that she was turning out to be a rather sullen character, which I think fits after the events of Trespasser and everything else. Also gave a good reason for Aang to try and cheer her up. She's based on my personal canon Inquisitor, though I actually chose to disband.**

 **Anyway, I'm still working out which episodes I want to feature and which I can afford to skip. The next three (The Southern Air Temple, The Warriors of Kyoshi, and The King of Omashu) are all pretty important for the character introductions they feature, though I want to focus more on what Riona does herself rather than retread as many scenes as I did in this chapter (Which covered both episode 1 + 2, so other chapters will probably be shorter).**

 **And yes, I am still working on Titan of Rapture, but this will probably be my last chapter of anything for awhile. I'm trying to write a thesis this semester and I have a lot of work to do. Writing fanfiction is a pleasant escape, but a time consuming one. I'll stick to the brainstorming stages for awhile.**


	3. Book I - The Southern Air Temple

**3**

 **~Book One~**

 **Water & The Howling Wind**

 **~Chapter 3~**

 **~The Southern Air Temple~**

* * *

 _Riona's legs and lungs burned with the strains as she ran at top speed through the underbrush. The sky was black and unseen thorns tore at her. The sound of slavering breathe behind her could have been a wolf or almost anything else. The elf didn't care at the moment, she just knew she had to get away, but no matter how hard she ran the sound of the ravenous creatures only got closer. When she finally reached a clearing, Riona whirled around with a kick that sent a gout of fire straight behind her. Somehow she had know she could do that. The flames hit something dark and formless that yowled in pain. She felt a brief sense of victory before more dark figures emerged from the forest edge._

 _She hit one of them with a plume of fire as they pounced, but she stood no chance. All at once the blackness slammed her to the ground. She saw a mouth of razor sharp fangs and then-_

Something huge, hot, wet, and awful smelling was dragging itself across her face. Riona sputtered and pushed herself away from whatever it was. "What the?!" When she cleared her eyes, she found herself staring up at Appa. The gigantic sky bison seemed rather pleased to have awakened her and extended its tongue to lick her again. "No, Appa, don't!" She could only groan in displeasure as a second layer of bison saliva soaked into her hair.

"He likes you!" Aang called out helpfully from the other side of camp as he, Sokka, and Katara packed the supplies.

"How nice," Riona fumed. "But a bath of bison spit is _not_ something I need in my morning routine!" Appa hummed a bestial groan and nudged her with his head. "I'm up!" The elf snapped as she began gathering her things. "Worse than getting woken by halla, at least they don't have tongues the size of my head…" She grumbled. Riona rolled up and stored her bedroll in the flying bison's saddle, studiously avoiding the creature's head. After sticking her head in a nearby stream, she boarded Appa and took her place leaning against the side of the saddle. She watched Aang leap up to take the reins on the bison's head. The airbender was ecstatic. For two days he had been talking animatedly about the Southern Air Temple, his home. He wanted to show his new friends airbender culture and airbender games. Katara got a concerned look in her eye every time he brought it up that only got more intense as they grew closer. Riona was not entirely sure what to make of it, but she had a question she'd been meaning to ask.

"Aang, Katara, there's something I want to ask."

"Yeah, what's up?" Aang twisted around to look at her and the waterbender gave her a questioning look.

"Well," She started. "When did you first discover that you were benders, or when were you first able to bend the elements?"

"I was very young," Katara said after a moment of thought. "I remember because there weren't any waterbenders in the tribe and my parents were worried when they saw me bend for the first time."

"Okay," That didn't give her any insight into her newfound abilities, except that discovering them at her age or even her body's current age, probably wasn't the norm. "You did it accidentally then?" Katara nodded.

"I don't ever remember not being able to bend." Aang shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"Curiosity," Riona sighed. "Just curiosity…"

"Hey! Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?" Sokka shouted abruptly. The other three turned to him. The lanky boy was holding an empty supply bag upside down.

"Oh, that was food?" Aang gave him a hapless grin. "I used it to start the campfire last night. Sorry." Sokka's eyes bulged.

"You WHAT? Awww, no wonder the flames smelled so good…"

"You burned our food," Riona gave Aang an incredulous stare. _What is wrong with this kid?_

"We'll find something," The airbender offered with an upbeat note. "Besides, there should be plenty of food at the temple!" Riona could only slap her forehead and sigh.

"Fantastic…" Just then Appa passed through a low cloud and a group of mountain peaks came into view. They were steep rocky mountains capped with snow. Riona was reminded of the Frostbacks.

"The Batola mountain range! We're almost there!" Aang was bouncing with excitement.

"Aang?" Katara started uneasily. "Before we get to the temple, I want to talk to you about the airbenders."

"What about 'em?"

"Well, I just want you to be prepared for what you might see. The Fire Nation is ruthless. They killed my mother and they could have done the same to your people." Her realistic perspective brought a shadow over the young avatar's face, but it passed quickly.

"Just because no one has seen an airbender doesn't mean the Fire Nation killed them all." He offered with a smile. "They probably escaped."

"I know it's hard to accept-" The waterbender started.

"You don't understand, Katara. The only way to get to an airbender temple is on a flying bison, and I doubt the Fire Nation has any flying bison. Right, Appa?" Aang reached down to rub the big animal's head and received a grunt of agreement. "Yip yip!" Abruptly Appa soared higher, causing the three passengers to cling to the saddle at the wind shear. Riona stifled a yelp of surprise the bison to them over a rocky outcropping. When she looked up she caught her first glance of the Southern Air Temple. It was an impressive structure, large towers jutted up from the mountaintop with a series of courtyards below.

"Wow," The elf was forced to admit it was probably more impressive than Skyhold, but she saw no flying bison and no people on gliders. If there were airbenders here, they were much more circumspect than Aang.

"There it is... the Southern Air Temple." Aang said with pride.

"Aang, it's amazing!" Katara marveled.

"We're home, buddy." Aang said to Appa. "We're home."

* * *

"You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an airbender temple and all you can think about is food?" Katara chastised her brother. _We wouldn't be hungry if somebody hadn't burned our food to fuel a campfire,_ Riona stopped herself from interjecting for Aang's sake. The structure of the temple was just as majestic up close when Appa came to rest on some sort of stone landing platform, but what struck the elf most was the silence. This place was entirely deserted and Riona guessed it had been so for some time. It reminded her too closely of ruins in the Dales.

"I'm just a simple guy with simple needs." Sokka responded. The three of them were trailing behind Aang on a rough hewn path. Ahead, the airbender had stopped to let them catch up.

"So that's where my friends and I would play airball!" The airbender gestured at a sizable plateau below filled with a collection of wooden pillars and contraptions at either end that Riona could only assume where goals. "And... over there would be where the bison would sleep... and... " He trailed off and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Katara asked gently.

"This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison." Riona wondered if what Aang was feeling was anything like the way Solas felt when he saw ancient elven ruins. Probably, though the thought only served to deepen her sullen attitude. "Now there's just a bunch of weeds. I can't believe how much things have changed." Sokka and Katara looked at each other, then the former threw an arm around Aang's shoulders.

"So, uh, this airball game? How do you play?"

* * *

While Sokka and Katara busied themselves trying to cheer up Aang, Riona wandered off on her own. It wasn't that she didn't want to help the preteen monk, but this was her first opportunity to get some answers of her own. She found a secluded ledge hidden by brambles and snowdrifts. Hopefully it would be enough.

"Alright then," The elf took a deep breath. She was either about to astonish herself or look like a fool. "Hah!" She cried as she struck out in the direction of a snowdrift with her fist. Nothing happened. There was no jet of flame, not even a spark.

"Ugh," She certainly didn't imagine herself firebending earlier. "Think, what were you feeling before, what was different…" She was scared for her life for one. Fear didn't seem like the best trigger though. The elf tried again, punching the air while imagining that feeling. Again, nothing happened. She tried it over and over again, sometime slipping in a kick or two. Again, nothing happened.

"Argh! Fenedhis!" Riona fell to her knees and pounded the ground with a fist. "I know I could do it before, so why not now?!" She pounded the ground again, sending up a spray of sparks- _Wait, wait, wait, sparks?_ Indeed, the elf stared open mouthed at the rapidly fading hot red spots as they hit the cool stone. _Alright, let's try anger._ She brought herself to her feet and thought about the most enraging thing she had ever seen, recalling how she felt when Solas broke off their relationship did the trick. She struck out with her right fist without results, but with a frustrated growl she moved smoothly into a left punch. This time a gout of flame soared from her closed fist.

"Yes!" Riona celebrated quietly. _So I can control it…_ Which is what she thought until she saw that the brambles had caught fire. "Oh Fenedhis, now what?" She groaned. The elf tried stomping the fire out, but eventually resorted to pulling snow onto it from a nearby drift almost as tall as she was. When the fire was out, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief was short lived as she heard a low rumbling sound behind her just a split second before the snow drift collapsed on her. She yelped as the small avalanche pushed her to the ground. Thankfully the snow already on the ground cushioned her fall so she didn't crack her head open on a rock, but she was pinned by the weight of the snow on top of her torso and extremities. "Oh, great…" Were she fully grown, this amount of snow would be a minor inconvenience but now...

A series of squeaks and odd noises drew distracted Riona from her efforts to free herself from the snow. She nearly shrieked when a bizarre small animal abruptly landed on the snow covering her chest. She had never seen anything quite like it. It was covered with white fur with dark areas. It reminded her somewhat of a squirrel, but with less of a rodent face, the tail was long and not bushy, and most notably a pair of massive ears protruded from its head. It blinked at her with large round eyes. It scampered closer to her face to take a better look and that was when she let out an involuntary shriek. She couldn't help it, raw instinct told her to keep anything potentially dangerous away from her face and that was the only way to stop it with her arms pinned.

Instantly the creature's ears flattened behind its head and it scampered in the opposite direction. It as out of sight in less than a second. Riona found herself panting, her blood pumping in her ears. _From killing dragons, to struggling with bandits, to screaming at small animals, what a fine regression…_ She continued to try wriggling her way out of the snow, making some progress before she heard footsteps.

"Riona!" Aang appeared over her with a look of concern. Sokka and Katara entered her field of vision. "We heard you scream, what happened?"

"Um," Obviously she couldn't tell them she was practicing her firebending. "Uh, the snow drift collapsed on me and I got stuck. There was some kind of animal on me and my, um," She felt her cheeks heat up in genuine embarrassment. "My scream scared it off."

"Animal?" Sokka perked up. "That means meat!" He licked his lips. Katara rolled her eyes at her brother as she used her bending to free Riona. The elf felt the snow simply flop off of her, allowing her to clamber to her feet.

"That sounds like a lemur!" Aang beamed. "So they aren't all gone! Did you see where it went?"

"No," Riona gave Aang a tired look. "No Aang, I was distracted by not letting it eat my face."

"Lemurs don't eat meat," The airbender informed her good naturedly. "It was probably just curious. Anyway, come on! I want to show you something!"

* * *

Aang took them to the steps of the temple and motioned to a statue of an elderly monk sitting cross legged. He was bald with prominent arrow tattoos on his head and hands. A thick mustache covered his lip and either die of his mouth. Around his neck a medallion engraved with three swirls on a beaded necklace was carved. Riona could only assume the swirls symbolized wind. "I want you to meet somebody."

"Who's that?" Sokka asked

"Monk Gyatso," Aang said as he looked warmly on the old air nomad. "The greatest airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know." The young avatar bowed to the statue of his teacher in reverence. His dedication actually surprised Riona. She had not expected him to be capable of such reverence, given how playful he generally was. For a moment, she was reminded of the way she used to look to Keeper Istimaethoriel. His expression was sad when he raised his head. Truthfully she had no idea what to say to the monk. Thankfully the water ender was not so handicapped. Katara stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You must miss him."

"Yeah." Aang began to walk forward into the temple.

"Where to now?" Riona finally found her voice. This place was feeling more and more like a tomb. She had bad memories of the sort of this one finds in tombs, nothing good.

"The Air Temple Sanctuary." He responded without looking back. "There's someone I'm ready to meet." He led them through a series of winding arched corridors. The elf noted that almost none of the corridors met at sharp angles, as if even the interior of the structure was intended to support the flow of the wind as it passed through the mountains. With the sheer size of the structure, Riona could not help but think of elven ruins. It was not a fond association.

"So… I'm not sure how to bring this up, but this person would have been waiting for a hundred years, right?" She asked as they approached a massive wooden door. The door was covered with an elaborate spiral of wooden tubes ending in expanded openings like trumpets. A trio of turquoise spiral tubes identical to the design on Gyatso's medallion lay at the center of the configuration.

"I know, but it's not impossible." Aang shot back as he approached the sanctuary door. "I survived in the iceberg for that long."

"Good point," Katara nodded in agreement.

"Whoever's in there might help me figure out this Avatar thing!" The airbender said with an optimistic smile.

"And whoever's in there might have a medley of delicious , cured meats!" Sokka rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Riona could practically _hear_ him salivating. The young teen ran to the door and started pushing in a futile attempt to open it. The elf turned to Aang again.

"So who is this person you're hoping to find?"

"I have no idea," The young avatar said without missing a beat as he stepped toward the door. Riona blinked after him before dropping her head with a long suffering sigh.

"You kids really do have no idea what you're doing…" She muttered to herself as the others moved ahead of her.

"I don't suppose you have a key?" Sokka asked as he slid down the door in defeat.

"The key, Sokka," Aang grinned, "Is airbending." With that, he composed himself and took in a breath. He raised both arms and suddenly lunged forward. A gust of wind tugged at Riona's hair and clothes as the airbender sent twin streams of air into the elaborate wooden tubes. The wind hummed through the tubes as each of the three spirals flipped, each with a unique tone. The carvings rearranged themselves and the doors rumbled open. A vast dimly lit space lay beyond the threshold.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Aang called. His voice echoe in the cavernous space as he led them into the room. When Riona's eyes had adjusted to the gloom, she realized the room was filled with statues, dozens if not hundreds of statues radiating in a spiral from the center of the room onto a spiraling ramp that stretched up into the gloom as far the elf could see. At first she thought the statues were unusually tall, but recalling her current childish stature, she realized they were probably life sized. Each was unique, portraying both men and women in a variety of costumes. Some seemed to air nomads, going by the tattoos. Others were dressed in water tribe attire and, from what she'd seen of their soldiers' uniforms, some seemed to be Fire Nation.

"Statues?!" Sokka quailed. "That's it? Where's the meat?"

"Oh, shush," Riona snapped in annoyance. "I'm hungry too, but we're all tired of hearing about your stomach!"

"Well _excuse me_! I'm not the one that burned all our food, bossy miss-err-pointy ears!"

"You're really bad at insulting me, you know that?"

"Who are all these people?" Katara asked, completely ignoring her brother's frustrated groan.

"I'm not sure," Aang surveyed the statues uncertainly, "but it feels like I know them somehow. Look!" He indicated one of the statues with arrow tattoos. "That one's an airbender!"

"And this one's a waterbender," Katara indicated the statue next to the one the young avatar had indicated. "Their lined up in a pattern: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire."

"What does that mean?" Riona asked.

"That's the avatar cycle." Aang supplied.

"Of course!" The waterbender turned to them excitedly. "They're Avatars. All these people are your past lives, Aang!"

"Wow! There's so many!" Aang's eyes became wide as saucers as he stepped further into the room, staring up at the seemingly endless line of statues.

"Wait a moment!" Riona interjected and planted herself in front of Katara. "Explain that, what do you mean by 'past lives'? What is the avatar cycle?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot you've never heard of any of this before," She took a breath. "The avatar is born into one of the four nations. When the avatar dies, they're reborn into the next nation in the cycle." Riona vaguely recalled hearing of something similar among the Avvar, of particular special souls returning. It seemed utterly bizarre to her. The Keeper had taught her that Falon'Din guided the souls of the dead to the Beyond. Given all she had learned of the Evanuris, she rather rather doubted it. The Andrastians believed the souls of the righteous were taken to the Maker's side while the souls of the sinful we're doomed to the Void. She could understand that one, but the idea of being reborn over and over each time with the fate of the world on one's shoulders… That seemed awful, once was quite enough for her. Riona stared up into the apparently endless procession of statues and felt herself begin to sway. There were so very many...

"Alright," She said slowly, trying to bring herself back to the here and now. "So that would mean… Aang's last incarnation was born in the Fire Nation." Speaking of, Aang had wandered in front of the statue in the center of the room, a long bearded old man with a stern expression dressed in the manner of the Fire Nation. He was staring at its face intently. "Aang?"

"Aang!" Katara called after a moment. The airbender didn't so much as twitch in their direction. He seemed captivated by the statue for whatever reason. "Aang, snap out of it!" The waterbender shook him by the shoulders.

"Huh?" Aang blinked as if coming out of a daze.

"What's special about this one?" Riona came up alongside them.

"That's Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me." The airbender replied, smiling up at the statue.

"Really," Riona gave Roku a skeptical look. This stern faced old man seemed quite the opposite of the easygoing youth beside her. Then again, preconceptions could be deceiving. Being the Herald of Andraste had certainly taught her that much.

"You were a firebender? No wonder I didn't trust you when we first met." Sokka, on the other hand, was perfectly comfortable airing his preconceptions. Riona made a note to make sure he was the _last_ person she would tell about her newfound 'talent'.

"There's no writing. How do you know his name?" Katara asked.

"I'm not sure…" Aang shrugged. "I just know it somehow."

"Ugh," The water tribe warrior growled in frustration. "You just couldn't get any weirder!" Riona just sighed. She couldn't pretend to understand any of this either. Just then she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Her hunter's instincts kicked in. She pressed herself into the shadow of the nearest statue and peered toward the door they had entered from. An ominous shadow stretched across the floor, a long dark shape with… horns?

"Firebender. Nobody make a sound." Sokka whispered. Riona realized the other three had hidden themselves the same way she had. Maybe they had better instincts than she gave them credit. His sister scowled at him.

"You're making a sound!"

"Shhhh!" All three of them shushed Katara as the shadow grew closer. Riona saw the young water tribe warrior readying his weapon.

"That firebender won't know what hit 'em." He promised quietly, mostly to himself, but something was wrong. The elf scrutinized the shadow. Unless the firebender was wearing a comically oversized helmet, the shadow was grossly unproportionate. In fact, the shadow actually reminded her of-

"Yah!" Just then Sokka leapt from his hiding space with his weapon held high. Riona reached for her sword, only to remind herself that she was currently defenseless. Her mood was not improved by what she saw:

That spindly big eared, big eyed oversized rodent from before.

"Lemur!" Aang shouted as the creature's massive ears flopped down behind its back.

"Dinner…" Sokka drooled.

"Don't listen to him! You're going to be my new pet." The airbender and the water tribe warrior began to advance on the diminutive creature.

"Not if I get him first!" Both boys lunged for the animal. It let out a screech and bristled at them before scampering away with surprising agility. They chased after it, shouting at one another as they disappeared down the corridor. Riona stared after them for several long moments. Then she sighed in annoyance..

"Just let them go," The elf turned to give Katara a tired look.

"That kid is going to need a lot of work before he's ready to topple a whole country," She remarked sullenly.

"Well, just," Katara paused and bit her lip as she moved to look at more of the statues. "Just let him be a kid for a little while longer," There was something very _off_ about the way she said that, it set off alarm bells well honed by years spent dealing with politicians. Riona put her hands on her hips and cocked her head at the waterbender.

"Katara…"

"What?" The waterbender had a telltale nervous tremor in her voice and she refused to look at the elf, instead fixing her gaze on one of the statues.

"Katara," Riona enunciated clearly, with a firm accusing undertone. "What do you know?" Katara looked over her shoulder at the smaller girl uncomfortably.

"Sokka… found a Fire Nation helmet." The words rang unusually loud in the large space.

"So they were here."

"A long time ago," Katara looked at the ground. "It's like I said on Appa, the Fire Nation did to the airbenders what they did to my mom."

"That's not the kind of thing you can hide!" Riona couldn't hold herself back from shouting. Did Katara really think she could protect Aang from the truth? It would do him no favors in the long run.

"I know!" Katara shot back. "I just know what it's like to lose people you care about, it's horrible," The waterbender slumped and suddenly looked very tired, as if some heavy weight were pressing down on her shoulders. "I just wanted to spare him that, for a little while…" Riona was very annoyed, angry even, but just as she opened her mouth to give voice to her feelings, something… surprising happened.

Roku's eyes began to glow.

She gasped and in that fraction of a second the eyes of the statue next to him pulsed with the same light. All the rest followed, a cascade of bright eyes spiraling up into the darkness of the room. The air hummed with energy. No stranger to mysterious magical phenomenon, the elf instinctively reached for her absent sword.

"Aang!" Katara turned from the statues and bolted out of the room. Left with no better explanation, Riona went after her. A loud _BOOM_ cut through the air as they scramble through the corridors. Harsh winds roared in their ears and pulled them every which way. When they emerged from the temple, they found themselves in the center of a maelstrom. Riona could only stare in disbelief at the carnage. One structure that she clearly remembered having a roof before had been completely demolished and standing in the center of the whirlwind was one small figure. One whose tattoos and eyes glowed with the same light she had seen in the statues and before on the Fire Nation ship. _This is_ _ **not**_ _a child…_

"What happened?!" Katara shouted at her brother as they both sheltered behind a piece of rubble. Riona shook herself from her stupor and moved to join them.

"He found out firebenders killed Gyatso!" Sokka shouted right back, clinging to a piece of rubble. The wind intensified, the airbender began levitating in a sphere of swirling wind, rising high over their heads.

"Oh no, it's his avatar spirit!" The waterbender peeked out from behind their cover to look at Aang. "He must have triggered it! I'm gonna try and calm him down."

"Well, do it before he blows us off the mountain!" Her brother clung even more closely to the rubble as the wind intensified. Katara stood and began walking against the wind to approach Aang.

"No! Katara!" Riona grit her teeth and tried to stand and follow, but the moment she stood a gust of wind nearly swept her off her feet and she found herself clinging to what remained of a stone pillar. "He's not himself, he could hurt you!" Whether the waterbender heard her or not, she latched onto another piece of stone and started to shout at Aang. The ceaseless roar of the windstorm nearly drowned out her words.

"Aang, I know you're upset," Katara started. Riona could only hold on with all her strength. She felt helpless. "...and I know how hard it is to lose the people you love. I went through the same thing when I lost my mom. Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders may be gone, but you still have a family. Riona, Sokka and I, we're your family now!" _Family_ … Riona thought of her clan in Wycome, they would always be her family, but when she thought of family she thought of the Inquisition. She thought of the companions bound to her not through blood, but through hardship and friendship. Katara was right, Aang was not alone, but could the elf really be family to him? Had she been so far? Riona almost didn't notice the wind dying down as Aang descended. She carefully let go of the pillar and approached The young airbender with the water tribe siblings.

"We aren't going to let anything happen to you. Promise." Sokka spoke with uncharacteristic gentleness as his sister took Aang's hands in her own. The light fades from his eyes and tattoos. He seemed a young boy again as he collapsed into Katara's arms.

"I'm sorry." Aang sounded exhausted.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault."

"But you were right." The airbender looked down at the ground sadly. "And if firebenders found this temple that means they found the other ones, too. I really am the last airbender." Katara held him tighter and Sokka put a hand on his shoulder. The elf stood near, looking at the three.

Riona felt troubled.

* * *

Riona followed the other three listlessly as they prepared to leave, gathering up what there was to salvage. She trailed behind them as Aang went to see the statue room one last time. The elf leaned against the wall deep in thought just inside the door while Aang and Katara went to Roku's statue.

"You've been quiet," Riona was pulled from her thoughts be Sokka's voice. She blinked at him for a moment before his words registered.

"Oh," She sighed. "It's… all this," Riona gestured to the whole room. "A people used to live here, a whole culture, now they're all gone. I didn't quite hit me before, but now…"

"I know what you mean," Sokka nodded. "That's the Fire Nation for you, they don't care what they destroy," She stared at the lanky boy for a few moments before sighing heavily.

"...Never mind." She crossed her arms and looked away.

"What?" The warrior scratched his head in confusion. Riona was spared the need to respond by the reappearance of an old friend. A furry big eared creature scampered into the room and before anyone could react it had laid out a pile of nuts and fruits in front of Sokka. The water tribe warrior instantly forgot about their conversation and began shoveling food into his mouth as if he hadn't eaten in a week. The creature snatched one piece of fruit right out of Sokka's hand and presented it to Riona.

"Um… Thank?" She said uncertainly as she took the offered fruit. The lemur made an odd trilling noise and dashed away from her.

"Looks like you guys made a new friend." Aang walked toward them with a smile.

"Can't talk. Must eat." Sokka managed through a full mouth. Riona too found her mouth full, she had forgotten just how hungry she was. The lemur scrambled up Aang's chest and curled up to sit on his head. The airbender's smile only widened.

"Hey little guy."

Despite herself, Riona felt a faint smile twitch at her lips.

* * *

"You, me, and Appa. We're all that's left of this place. We have to stick together." Aang spoke to his bison and the lemur when they reached the ledge they had first landed at. "Riona, Katara, Sokka…" He turned around to face them all and presented the lemur his arm. "...say hello to the newest member of our family."

"What are you going to name him?" Katara asked as they all drew closer. Riona eyed the small creature suspiciously. It blinked back, then sprung toward Sokka, snatching a piece of fruit he was about to eat, and retook his place on Aang's arm.

"Momo." Aang pronounced. They all laughed, even Riona managed a wry chuckle, but as they began clamboring onto Appa she stopped.

"Aang…" The airbender had already launched himself up to Appa's reigns. He turned his head to look at her.

"Yeah?" Riona opened her mouth, then closed it. She pulled herself up onto the giant bison and settled on the edge of the saddle facing Aang. When they were airborne, the elf finally spoke.

"Aang, well, all of you… I'm sorry, I've been very selfish." She finally admitted. They all gave her confused looks.

"Huh?" Was Sokka's articulate response.

"What do you mean?" His sister asked.

"Ever since I woke up here I've been completely wrapped up in my own problems," She looked Aang in the eye. "I haven't been thinking about how all of this…," She glanced back at the receding spires of the Southern Air Temple. "How this whole situation affects you, and what you've been through... Aang, can I tell you a story?"

"Sure,"

"My people are called the Dalish," Riona started. "A long time ago, we lived in a place called the Dales. We lost that homeland and with it almost all we knew. Too many of my people have let that loss change them, turn them hateful… I haven't known you for very long Aang, but I don't want to see that happen to you." The silence that followed felt very long to the elf. Aang looked at her intently, then smiled softly.

"Thanks Riona, but don't worry. Katara was right, I have you guys now. I'm not alone, that's how I know I'll keep being myself."

"...I think you will." The elf sat back and closed her eyes, letting herself feel the wind on her face and trying to push her troubles to the back of her mind. Aang watched the towers of his home recede into the mist and finally disappear.

* * *

"Goro!" Iroh called as he entered the blacksmith's forge. "Are you here?" The forge was fairly standard as Fire Nation military ports went, they all needed at least one to maintain the garrison's weapons. This one in particular was an old friend of Iroh's. They had met during the General's infamous siege of Ba Sing Se, where Goro had helped maintain the equipment and become a regular at Iroh's Pai Sho table. It was pure happy coincidence that he happened to be posted at Zhao's port, which gave Iroh just the person he needed right now…

"In here!" Goro's raspy voice called. Iroh followed it into the blacksmith's den, roaring flames in the fireplace. Goro knelt at the head of his low table. he was a swarthy muscular man with shaggy grey hair tied back and a messy beard. He was glowering intensely at the sword in front of him, a straight edged dark green blade.

"I was surprised not to see you at my nephew's duel with Zhao," The old general said as he sat down beside his old friend. "I seem to recall you enjoyed spectacles." That seemed to be the wrong thing to say as his friend's expression darkened. Iroh did his best to laugh it off. "Eh, not that you didn't have important work to do, of course..."

"This sword. Makes. No. Sense." Goro growled each word.

"What did you find out?" Iroh leaned forward.

"Whatever this thing is made of, I've never seen anything like it." The blacksmith snatched up the blade and held it up so it caught the firelight. "It's like spiritual energy is hammered into the blade itself, and then there's this," He indicated a gem set in the hilt with a ruin engraved on its surface that seemed to gleam. "You're the spiritually attuned one, don't tell me you don't feel that."

"I did," Iroh gingerly took the sword from his friend and held it before him. He had notice it first the night after he had seen the strange red haired girl. The stone was filled with energy that it seemed to pour into the blade itself. "I was hoping you could had seen something like this before, you're the one with the exotic weapon collection."

"This is _beyond_ exotic, no culture in the world makes weapons like this." Goro snorted. "Where did you say you got this?"

"From a very strange young girl," Iroh stroked his beard thoughtfully. "One I am increasingly interested in meeting again…"

* * *

 **Author's Note: So… yeah, my original plan was to have this finished by Christmas like my updates for my other stories. That obviously didn't happen. Same message as the others, I will be cutting back on my fanfiction in an effort to focus more on my work in a very busy time in my life.**

 **I'll get back to this fic when I can, until then I'd love to hear more thoughts on the story. I love feedback :)**


	4. Book I - The Warriors of Kyoshi

**4**

 **~Book One~**

 **Water & The Howling Wind**

 **~Chapter 4~**

 **~The Warriors of Kyoshi~**

* * *

 _The emerald blade arced through the air, it's edge slicked red with a glistening trail of crimson droplets in its wake. Beside it, another stream of red, the scarlet hair of the sword's wielder. She strode forth, resplendent in white and gleaming silver, mouth open in a shout as her foe fell, a deep green shield at her side. The horned giant fell at her feet, sword clattering across flat stone. Around her, more of its kind raised swords and spears toward her as their blood stained the verdant meadow. Other figures fought beside her, clashing with the horned men in a vibrant melee. Colossal ruins dotted the landscape around them, dominated by a shimmering mirror filled with light…_

Iroh blinked away the images as he emerged from his meditation and found himself once again sitting cross legged in his cabin. The old general's features set into a frown. He liked to think of himself as a patient man and, without arrogance, quite spiritually attuned. He had visited the spirit world and communed with the last living dragons, but he had never experienced anything quite like that before. Iroh examined the sword in his hands, running his hand along the blade. Even now there was a slight shimmer to the metal. It was as if the spiritual energy bonded to the weapon had captured a memory of its user or a time it was used.

"Who was that, I wonder?" Iroh asked himself and stroked his beard. The woman in his vision had been considerably older than the girl he had seen hold the sword, but the resemblance was unmistakable. They had the same long red hair, the same sharp green eyes, and those peculiar pointed ears. Could it have been her mother? A sister maybe?

"Hmm…" This was only getting stranger and stranger, though perhaps just as strange as the Avatar being a twelve year old airbender. Just as he was about to delve further into these thoughts, two solid knocks came from his door.

"Sir, I have the intelligence reports you requested." Iroh set the sword aside and rose with a sigh. He'd told the crew to give the intelligence reports to him instead of his nephew. Zuko did not have the temperament for receiving bad news these days, not without burning the messenger. Iroh opened the door to find a young crewman staring at him. He continued to stare at the old man even as Iroh took the offered scroll and opened it. Iroh wondered if the crewman had volunteered for this duty, to get a look at the Dragon of the West. If so, he was probably disappointed by the bedraggled portly man in his morning robe.

"I see," Iroh scanned the report and the accompanying map before rolling them up again. He offered the crewman a wide smile. "Thank you for bringing this to me. I'll get this to my nephew."

"Uh, yes sir." He stammered as Iroh passed him by. It didn't take long for him to reach his nephew's door. He pushed the door open and leaned into the dim room. Zuko sat cross legged in front of a shrine, the candles upon which were the only source of illumination. The flames atop them flared and dimmed with the fire prince' breathing. He made no move to react when the door opened.

"The only reason you should be interrupting me is if you have news about the Avatar."

"Well, there is news, Prince Zuko," Iroh opened the door wider and stepped in carefully, "but you might not like it. Don't get too upset."

"Uncle," The prince spoke with surprising calmness, "you taught me that keeping a level head is a sign of a great leader. Now whatever you have to say, I'm sure that I can take it." At least he wasn't ignoring Iroh's lessons completely...

"Okay, then... we have no idea where he is."

"WHAT?!" Zuko surged to his feet and the candle flames surged with him, climbing to the ceiling. Iroh snapped a fan from his sleeve as a wall of dry heat and sparks hit him.

"You really should open a window in here…"

"Give me the map!" Zuko snapped the map from him and unrolled it. Iroh sighed internally and began to fan himself. If anything his nephew had only grown more obsessed and filled with rage after encountering the Avatar in the South Pole. He showed almost no interest in his strange companion however, so the red haired girl remained Iroh's object of curiosity.

"There have been multiple sightings of the Avatar, but he is impossible to track down." Iroh recounted. There was little discernible rhyme or reason to the Avatar's meandering path across the southern hemisphere.

"How am I gonna find him, Uncle? He is clearly a master of evasive maneuvering."

* * *

"Sokka, give me the damned map or so help me-"

"Oh come on, you don't have any more idea where we are than Aang does!"

"At least I could keep an eye out for landmarks!" Riona growled at Sokka. She crossed her arms and huffed. "I'm good with landmarks…"

"Um, hello!" The water tribe teen waved his arms above his head. "Have you looked around lately? There are no landmarks!" It was true. The elf gazed bleakly out over the endless expanse of ocean that surrounded them on all sides.

"Well, I'm better on land." Riona grumbled to herself. She had always preferred to travel under her own power, or the power of a mount she controlled. The elf had grown restless with being a passenger. Riona, Sokka and Katara were seated in Appa's saddle. The sun beat down on them from a cloudless sky, but a pleasant breeze countered the sun's heat. Katara sat near the front, sewing a hole in Sokka's pants. The currently pantless Sokka leaned against the saddle back, a respectful distance from where Riona sat in the middle. When she attempted to snatch the map from his hand, he had blushed and edged away from her, holding his long coat over himself. She had rolled her eyes. "Where is this place again, Aang?"

"Well," Said the guileless Avatar, holding the bison's reigns from his perch atop the creature's head. Their newest animal friend clung to his shoulder, blinking at them with big round eyes. "I know it's surrounded by water."

"Great," The elf deadpanned, "Really narrows things down… And why are we going to this island?"

"We're going to ride the elephant koi!"

"...We really need to have a talk about your priorities."

"Just because I'm supposed to save the world, doesn't mean we can't have fun along the way." Aang smiled back on them. Riona huffed and didn't respond. The airbender's gaze drifted to Katara. The waterbender had yet to look up from her work.

"Momo, marbles please." The lemur dove into Aang's collar and reemerge a moment later to perch on the Avatar's other shoulder, depositing two small round objects in his hand. Aang clasped both hands around the object and shifted to face Katara. "Hey Katara, check out this airbending trick!" He opened his hands and in the space between them the two marbles hovered and spun around one another as the airbender manipulated the air around them. Riona would have been more impressed had the relentless sun beating down on her not burnt out all her good humor.

"That's great, Aang." Katara didn't even look up. Riona heaved a sigh of exasperation. _I am way too sunburnt and hungry for this._ The marbles dropped back

"You didn't even look." Aang sagged. The waterbender lifted her head and looked at him blankly.

"That's great."

"But I'm not doing it now…"

"Stop bugging her, airhead." Sokka waved his arm vaguely. "You need to give girls space when they do their sewing." Riona wondered if these kind of views were normal or just this particular teenager's conceit. Katara stiffened and scowled at her brother.

"What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?"

"Simple: girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that. It's just the natural order of things." Now it was Riona's turn to scowl at the gangly teen, but Katara's mouth twitched into a fake smile.

"All done with your pants! And look what a great job I did!" She cast the partially mended pants right into Sokka's face. Despite herself, the elf snickered at that.

"Wait, I was kidding! Please, Katara, I can't wear this."

"Consider yourself lucky, I was just going to hit you." Riona grinned. "Again, like back in the village when we first met." Sokka crossed his arms at the memory.

"Hey, I wasn't ready that time! There's no way a girl could beat me in a fair fight!" The elf sighed.

*SMACK*

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You deserved it." His sister intoned with a smirk as Sokka rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't worry Sokka," Aang suddenly sounded upbeat. "We're here!" The other three raised their heads and looked to see an island growing below them.

* * *

"We just made a pit stop yesterday, shouldn't we do a little more flying before we camp out?" Sokka made his intelligent comment for the day after Appa alighted on a beach of white sand. Riona was the second to the ground after Aang, thrilled to have something solid and stable beneath her feet again. That was why she grimaced when she opened her mouth to agree.

"As much as it pains me to say it, Sokka has a point. Isn't the fate of the world at stake or something?"

"At this rate we won't reach the North Pole before spring," Katara agreed. Aang paid them little mind and shaded his eyes with his hand as he looked out onto the small bay.

"But Appa's tired already, aren't you boy?" The airbender patted the bison, who failed to react. Aang frowned for a moment. "I said, aren't you boy?" He nudged the massive beast harder and this time Appa yawned right on cue, opening his gaping flat toothed mouth with bits of spittle connecting both rows of chompers. Riona wasn't sure what a fake flying bison yawn would sound like, but she felt certain that one sounded fake.

"Aang," Riona took a breath. "I really do want to help you with this whole avatar thing, but to do that you kinda have to _do this whole avatar thing_ , not-"

"Look!" Aang suddenly jabbed his finger at the water. Riona was rendered speechless as she saw the largest fish she had ever seen soar out of the water to crash back into the waves with a deafening splash. "This is why we're here, elephant koi, and I'm gonna ride it! Katara, you have to watch me!" Aang babbled as he stripped down to his small clothes and soared off into the water before any of them could get a word in edgewise.

"...Nevermind," Riona sighed and turned away from the water, leaving the water tribe siblings to spectate. The elf had given quite a bit of thought to how she could best help Aang for the time being. She hoped that her experience with leadership and fighting with a small group of companions would be of use, but all of that seemed moot. They were at the mercy of a twelve year old's sense of urgency, or lack thereof. And, if she was being honest with herself, she wasn't much use in a fight anymore.

"What I would give to be two feet taller…" She mused as she reached their supplies. "Or at least have my sword." Riona looked down and paused. Sticking out of one of the animal hide sacks the southern water tribe had given them for supplies was a bleached white handle, presumably some sort of bone, with a length of black material wrapped around it. The elf had seen it before, it was a club Sokka sometimes used. Almost before she realized what she was doing, Riona pulled the weapon free and examined it. The head curved around a bright blue orb of some unknown durable material. It was hefty, but much more manageable than her sword had been with her current physical limitations. She gave it a few practice swings, bringing it down in a hammer blow on the head of an imaginary foe.

"Hey! Put that back!" Riona turned to see Sokka stalking toward her. "That's mine!"

"Relax, Sokka," She rolled her eyes. "I'm not stealing it from you, but I do need a new weapon…"

"Well that one's mi-"

"Aang, get out of there!" Katara's shout cut her brother off. He and the elf pivoted toward the water. The airbender was all the way out in the middle of the bay, clinging to the yellow fin of an elephant koi as it cut through the water at tremendous speed. At first Riona didn't see what all the fuss was about, she was no longer so shocked by the weird creatures of this world. Then she saw the black fin slowly rising out of the water in the airbender's wake...

"Get out of the water!" The elf shouted as she ran to the water's edge and splashed into the tide. Sokka was right behind her and together all three of them began to shout and wave their arms frantically, attempting to get Aang's attention. The airbender finally turned his head and gave them a confused look. Abruptly, the elephant koi was jerked out from under him, as if yanked away by a massive force. Aang was sent flying, tumbling into the water. Riona's breath caught in her chest as a massive fin emerged out of the water to cast a shadow on the floundering airbender.

In her clan, the hunters had told stories of all manner of monsters. From the lowly varghest and oversized bears to varterral and the rare high dragon, all were fodder for rousing campfire tales. There was even one story of a giant chicken that turned people to stone with a look and stole their bacon, she was pretty sure that one was made up though. Some stories they heard in human villages and brought back with them. Dieran, a younger hunter, had once told a story he had heard from an Antivan sailor. He described monstrous creatures in the seas to the north, 'sea dragons', great serpentine beasts that could sink any ship short of a qunari dreadnought. Riona didn't know if they were real, but it was all she could think of as the massive fin loomed over the young avatar. Aang screamed. The elf's heart skipped a beat. Then, in a burst of ocean spray, the airbender was flying towards them.

Flying wasn't the right word, Aang was running, skimming over the water with such speed that he actually seemed to be stepping on the water. Riona blinked in disbelief, right before the airbender careened into her.

" _Umph!_ " All the air was driven from her lungs as she was hit by what felt like a punch from the Iron Bull and the pair of them tumbled across the beach in a tangle of limbs. They came to a stop in a haze of kicked up sand.

"Aang! Are you okay?!" Katara was the first to reach them and help disentangle them, pulling the avatar to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Aang sounded breathless but strangely still excited.

"I'm fine too, thanks." Riona coughed. The waterbender lent her a hand and pulled her up.

"What was that thing?" Katara asked, looking back at the bay. The creature had vanished, presumably sunk once again below the bay.

"Don't know, but we're not sticking around to find out. Time to hit the road." Sokka declared and turned toward their bags. That was when two strange green clad figures dropped into Riona's field of vision. She barely had time to register their painted white faces and cry out before her arms were wrenched behind her back and a blindfold was slipped over her field of vision.

 _Why do these things always happen to me?!_

* * *

 _...Seriously, how do I always manage to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Step into the wrong temple? Boom. Meet with the wrong magister? Thrown into the future. Land on the wrong island? Bound and blindfolded by overly made up bandits!_ Riona concluded at the end of a long internal rant. There wasn't much else to do except grunt in pain when she was dragged over rocks or a tree root by their captors. She had tried shouting at them, but they just told her to be quiet and offered no explanation as to where they were going or what they intended to do with the four of them.

The elf stopped asking after the fourth tree root. She suspected her captor was doing it on purpose. After a time, she found herself being pulled up and her back pressed against a curved hard surface, like some kind of upright wooden pole.

"Hey, where-uck!" She was cut off by the sudden tightening of a new rope around her midriff, lashing her to the pole and pinning her arms to her sides. A trio of grunts and sudden intakes of breath told her Aang and the others were tied to the same pole.

"You four have some explaining to do." A new voice, an old man. Riona squirmed against her bonds to angle her head toward the voice. It seemed to be coming from her left and slightly behind her, so they were facing one of the others.

"And if you don't answer all our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the Unagi." Another voice, a young girl's filled with a sense of command.

"Show yourselves, cowards!" Sokka shouted and to the elf's surprise the blindfold was ripped from her face a moment later. The harsh sunlight made her close her eyes immediately. When she opened them, she finally got a good look at her captors, which appeared to be… teenage girls? The girls wore some sort of ankle length green robe or dress, with black segmented chest plate and bracers. Each wore a green headband with a gold square in the center of their foreheads, save for the one. Her headband supported an elaborate gold crest that covered her forehead entirely. She stood beside a short heavyset old man in blue, some sort of elder. All of them had powdered white faces with eye accentuating red paint under their brows. _They're so young…._ Behind them was a small village, a single road lined with wooden buildings.

"Who are you?" Sokka of course, was the first to open his big fat mouth. "Where are the men who ambushed us?

"There were no men. We ambushed you." The leading girl spoke in the same voice that had threatened to throw them to the sea beast. "Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?" She glanced at Riona to communicate the silent _And what are_ _ **you**_ _?_ Sokka laughed in disbelief.

"Wait a second, there's no way that a bunch of girls took us down."

"Ugh," Riona did her best to glare at Sokka around the curve of the pole. She would definitely have to demonstrate how wrong he was later. The leading warrior seemed to have the same idea. She leaned in to grab Sokka by the collar and shook him.

"A bunch of girls, huh?" The girl said with a threatening smile. "The Unagi's gonna eat well tonight." Katara quickly jumped in.

"No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes."

"Sometimes? I think it's more the norm," Riona muttered. Then she cleared her throat. "Look, we have no quarrel with you, please just let us go on our way." That brought everyone's attention to her and she belatedly realized that some of them had been staring at her the whole time, her red hair and pointed ears specifically.

"You," This time it was the old man who spoke. He scowled at her suspiciously. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"Riona," She threw her name back with a sarcastic curl of the lip. An ember of smoldering frustration burned in her. "I'm an elf. Nice to meet you, we thought we'd stop by and take in the sights." The scowl turned into a glower and his face turned red.

"It's my fault." Aang hung his head, cutting off the elder's angry retort. "I'm sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the elephant koi." The old men turned his ire to Aang and stuck a finger in his face.

"How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies? Kyoshi stayed out of the war so far. And we intend to keep it that way!" That smoldering ember blossomed into a flame. Riona thrashed against her bonds.

"Oh for Mythal's sake, leave him alone! We don't want to drag your Kyoshi or whatever into-"

"Wait, Kyoshi?" Aang perked up. "As in Avatar? I know Kyoshi!" The elder scoffed.

"Ha! How could you possibly know her? Avatar Kyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She's been dead for centuries." He pointed up, and the four youths craned their necks. Atop the poll they had been tied to was a carved wooden statue covered in faded and peeling paint. It was a woman in the same green garb and makeup as the warriors surrounding them, though she wore a more elaborate headdress. Riona's temper cooled for the moment… then she realized her hand was hot. Looking down she saw sparks in her closed fist. Panic washed over her like a bucket of ice water and she quickly patted out the sparks. Her head whipped side to side, afraid someone had seen. A few of the warriors gave her odd looks, but it didn't seem they had witnessed her little secret. Riona exhaled, trying to stay calm.

"I know her because I'm the Avatar." The airbender was smiling now.

"That's impossible! The last Avatar was an airbender who disappeared a hundred years ago." The lead warrior objected. Aang's smile became a full fledged grin. Riona just focused on keeping her composure, nothing says 'not-Fire-Nation-spies' like bursting into flame.

"That's me!" Said the plucky airbender. The elder was unamused.

"Throw the imposter to the unagi!" The warriors drew golden fans from their waistlines and advanced toward in a battle stance. Riona balled her fists and tensed her legs. It looked like they would have to escape after all.

"Aang," Katara whispered urgently. "Do some airbending…" In a split second, the elf felt a great rush of wind and suddenly the bonds holding her fell slack. Riona fell to the ground with a yelp and saw Aang flipping through the air to land gracefully to the ground. The assembled crowd, which now appeared to include the villagers, gaped, and an astounded murmur made its way through them.

"It's true... you are the Avatar!" The elder stumbled back in disbelief. The airbender reached into his shirt.

"Now... check this out!" He whipped out the marbles from earlier and repeated his spinning marble trick. He grinned expectantly at his audience. Shock gave way to joy as the villagers began to shout and cheer with excitement. One man in the front began to foam at the mouth and fainted. Riona just sighed in relief.

* * *

"Oh thank the Creators, Andraste, the Maker, Korth and whoever else is listening." An hour later, Riona's worries were far from her mind as she stuffed her face with the best meal she'd had since leaving the South Pole. After accepting Aang's identity as the Avatar, the Kyoshi warriors had untied the four of them with a profuse apology and the whole village had set about making them welcome. That included ushering them into one of the nicer buildings in town and setting out a feast for the young Avatar and his friends. The feast mostly seemed to consist of sugary cakes, which would probably make Riona feel sick later but at the moment she was just happy to be eating something other than the nuts and fruit that had sustained them since Aang had used their food for kindling. Even Appa was getting luxurious treatment, just outside the villagers were running combs through his fur, polishing his horns and feeding him hay.

"All right! Dessert for breakfast!" Aang took another bite of his own sweets. "These people sure know how to treat an Avatar!"

"Ick sheems wur hinally having shum uck," Riona said through a mouthful of cake.

"What?"

"I said," The elf started after swallowing. "It seems we're finally having some luck."

"Agreed!" Aang took another bite as Momo snatched a cake from his other hand.

"I don't know," Katara picked up a sugary treat and eyed it. "I think we've been pretty lucky so far. We haven't run into the Fire Nation since leaving the South Pole."

"A good thing too," Riona smirked at Sokka. The water tribe warrior was sulking in the corner. Usually ravenous, he had yet to touch a crumb of food. "After all, you had so much trouble with a _mere_ bunch of girls…"

"Hey!" Sokka stood and stalked toward her. It might have been slightly intimidating if his voice wasn't cracking. "They got you too! Besides they snuck up on me!" Riona frowned and her next cake stopped on its way to her mouth.

"Right, and then they kicked your butt." Katara needled her brother. Incoherent frustrated noises and were all Sokka could do in response. He spun around and stomped in the direction of the door.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" Aang asked. The teen did an about face and snatched up several cakes from the table, muttering angrily as he went.

"Sneak attacks don't count! Tie me up with ropes! I'll show them a thing or two. I'm not scared of any girls. Who do they think they are anyway?" He resumed his course toward the door. "Mmm... this is tasty…"

"What's he so angry about? It's great here! They're giving us the royal treatment."

"Hey, don't get too comfortable. It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long." Katana cautioned lightly.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town?" Aang twisted around to point out the window. "They're even cleaning up that statue in my honor!"

"Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the Avatar. I just hope it doesn't all go to your head." The waterbender was trying to reign in Aang's excitement, but he was having none of it.

"Come on, you know me better than that. I'm just a simple monk." The young Avatar grinned. Katara nodded, apparently giving up the effort. She looked past him to the red haired elf. Riona had assumed a stony countenance, staring absently at the cake in her hand.

"Is something wrong, Riona?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing," The elf sighed. "Just… never mind." She did not know how to explain to Katara that her brother had a point, though not the one he was trying to make. The Herald of Andraste _had_ been defeated by gaggle of young girls. The issue that bothered her was not their gender, but rather their age. They had been teenagers at most, and she had been taken down in less than five seconds. Even before that, her attempt to rescue Aang ended with the avatar freeing himself and her losing her sword. _Just what am I adding to this group anyway?_ She had her experience to draw upon, but so far she had been playing catch up to understand this strange world and what had happened to her. Now it seemed she was little more than a burden in a fight too. _Of course, there is something you can do about it…_ Riona sighed again and took another mouthful of sweet cake.

* * *

"Come on, just swallow your pride. You're not above this…" The elf muttered to herself as she stared up at one of the larger buildings in the village, abutting the shrine to Avatar Kyoshi. A villager had directed her here when she asked where she could find the Kyoshi warriors, after she deflected questions about her hair and ears. Even now Riona could see them through the crack of an open sliding door, shifting through combat movements with surprising grace. She knew that she needed this, that the skills that brought her to victory time and time again behind her sword and shield were useless in this body, especially without her sword.

Yet she could not help feeling humiliated asking a child to teach her basic techniques.

With a deep breath, the elf stepped up to the threshold and entered. The green clad warrior girls made a striking impression, moving with practiced near perfect synchronicity. It was unlike the combat style she was accustomed to. Where she had learned to project strength through her blade and be immovable behind her shield, these warriors flowed through their movements, more suited to avoiding or redirecting blows that blocking them.

"Anything we can do for you?" Riona jumped at the voice. One of the girls, the leader with the special gold headdress, had stopped sequencing through the motions and soon the others had followed her lead. Now they all stared at Riona curiously. The elf felt her ears twitch in agitation.

"Uh, hello," She began awkwardly, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "I'm Riona."

"I'm Suki," The leader said warmly, she gestured to her fellows, "and these are the Kyoshi Warriors." The elf received a smattering of respectful nods and waves. Traveling with the Avatar gained her some respect, but they were all staring at her ears.

"I gathered that, um…" _Amazing, this is even more awkward than I thought it would be._ "I… was just wondering if you wouldn't mind showing me some moves." She scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. A murmur swept through the warriors, some excited, others more apprehensive. The murmurs died down when Suki raised a hand. She gave Riona an appraising look.

"We would be honored to spar with a companion of the Avatar."

"I was thinking more along the lines of learning," There, she said it. The murmurs returned in force. Suki folded her arms.

"We don't generally teach outsiders our techniques… but if you're helping the avatar, I think we can make an exception as long as you follow our traditions."

"Traditions?"

As it turned out, traditions entailed putting on the signature armored battle dress of the Kyoshi Warriors. It was lighter than she was expecting, and Riona was just happy they had something in her size. She was almost a head shorter than some of the girls. It was easier to move in than the heavy armor she was accustomed to. What bothered her was the face paint Suki insisted on applying. Sure, she had spent most of her adult life with facial tattoos, but she had never liked makeup. Josephine had spent the better part of several hours wrangling her into putting some on before they went to the Winter Palace. That had just been some light touch ups, this was a layer covering her whole freckled face. Every few seconds Riona found herself fidgeting to resist the urge to try and wipe it off. She swore the Kyoshi Warriors were enjoying her discomfort. At least the headband kept her hair out of her eyes.

"Are you sure all of this is necessary?" Riona tugged at one of the gold tassels absently. "It's not like I'm joining up."

"It might seem like a lot, but it's important to remember where our traditions started." Suki pointed out the window, where the refurbished statue of Avatar Kyoshi stood vibrant in the sun. "Avatar Kyoshi was born here and defended us from Chin the Conqueror, a warlord with a great army, separating us from the mainland with earthbending. It is in reverence to her that we train to defend our island from any who would threaten it."

"Okay, that's-" Riona blinked. "Wait, she did _what_?"

"Now," Suki spread her feet apart and raised her hands in a defensive pose. Her eyes narrowed. "Show me what you can do."

"Uh," The elf mumbled and mimicked Suki's stance awkwardly. She was suddenly remembering why hand to hand was a last resort for her. For starters, Suki suddenly seemed much taller than she did a second ago. _Why do humans have to be so tall? Oh well, in for a copper…_

"Hyaa!" Riona lunged, aiming her fist for the Kyoshi Warrior's face. Suki flowed around her fist like water, snatching the elf's wrist and swiping her foot toward her legs. But one of the few things that survived Riona's transformation was quick combat reflexes. She twisted away, yanking herself out of Suki's grip and lashing out with a jab. Her blow was off, striking her opponent in the shoulder instead of her chin. A sudden palm strike caught her in the chest, throwing her off her precarious footing and sending the elf sprawling on her back. "Ooof!"

"Well, it looks like we've got work to do." Suki offered her hand and pulled Riona to her feet. The elf groaned. "It looks like you're used to brute force seeing you through. For someone your size, you're going to be up against people a lot bigger than you."

"I figured," The elf mumbled. Suki gave her a comforting look.

"Don't sweat it, you do have great reaction time. That's good, our techniques are about redirecting our opponent's energy and using it against them. Ready?" Riona took a deep breath and looked around at the assembled warriors. Her cheeks burned with wounded pride beneath the face paint covering her features. _If only Solas could see you now, a child that can barely defend herself from other children. Maybe a part of him always saw me that way..._

"Yes," Riona gritted her teeth and straightened her back. "I'm ready."

* * *

"Ugh," Katara grimaced as she watched Aang from down the street. He was performing airbending tricks for a gaggle of young village girls that had been following him around half the day. Each chorus of giggles brought a wider grin to the young Avatar's face and deepened Katara's annoyance. He said he wouldn't let the attention go to his head, but that had lasted all of five seconds. A quieter voice told her it wasn't just Aang's lack of self control that was bothering her about all the attention he was receiving from those girls, but she tried not to think about it. Instead she turned herself to the task of acquiring supplies for the journey north. She found her thoughts drifting to the enigma of their group: Riona

Katara had given the red haired girl the benefit of the doubt ever since she first arrived in the South Pole, out of curiosity as much as compassion. As far as the waterbender was concerned, Riona had vindicated her decision thus far, but that didn't mean she didn't wonder. The strange looking red haired girl had claimed no knowledge of how she had come to be unconscious on the tundra and had initially interrogated Katara with a barrage of words and phrases that meant nothing to the waterbender. She received only clipped and unhelpful explanations for a handful of those words from Riona. Then the "elf", whatever that was, had lashed out angrily when Sokka leveled suspicions at her, planting him face first into a snow drift before becoming sullen and depressed.

Katara understood Riona felt lost and tried to be helpful, and the elf did open up to her a bit. She mentioned that she too had been raised in a small tribe, taught to take care of those around her and was willing to help out around camp. Riona also said that her strange green sword had been made for her, though Katara was a bit skeptical given how hard it was for her to wield. Maybe someone had made it for her to grow into, that made sense. She had been upset ever since she lost it on the Fire Nation ship.

Katara pursed her lips as she absentmindedly examined a piece of local fruit. If there was anything that confused her about her red haired friend, it was how little she knew about the world. Aang's knowledge was a century out of date but Riona knew nothing at all of the four nations or the avatar. Riona had let slip that she had seen war before, perhaps that was why she was so ill tempered most of the time and why she sometimes talked to them with a sense of authority like she was much older and experienced. One day she hoped that the elf would explain all that, but at the moment she was more concerned about getting to the North Pole.

Riona had committed herself to helping Aang and she seemed to be genuine. That was enough for now. Watching her put Sokka in his place was a nice bonus though.

* * *

Riona followed the Kyoshi Warriors through their stances, practicing their movements. Her veteran mind saw the truth of Suki's words as she watched them practice and mimicked their motions. It less about striking one's opponent and more about outmaneuvering them to take advantage of openings. She had no illusions that she would master it all in a single afternoon, but she did her best to memorize each movement for later practice.

Then came the spars. Over and over, Riona found herself paired off with one of the warriors, most of them almost a head taller than her. Sometimes she held her own for awhile, sometimes she landed flat on her back in seconds. It was when she was up against a particularly tall girl that she finally turned the tables. Riona moved first, feinting to the left. The warrior did not fall for the maneuver and held her ground when the elf pivoted to the right and threw a fist. The human ducked away and struck out at Riona's extended arm. That was what the elf was waiting for, her other arm snapped out and seized the Kyoshi Warrior's wrist. Rather than arresting her momentum, Riona leaned away from the human, bending her knees and rolling onto her back. The Kyoshi Warrior's eyes widened as she was she pulled off her feet and the elf curled to bring her feet between them. Riona drove both her feet into the human's armored midriff, flipping her over the prone elf to land on the mat clutching her gut. Riona lay on the ground heaving for breath, her muscles burning from the hours of sustained physical activity.

"Did I win?"

"You're supposed to roll out of that move onto your feet," Suki appeared over her. "But that was pretty good. One thing though," She said as she helped the red haired elf to her feet. "I noticed that you tend to misjudge your reach, either you think you can grab something that's too far away or you overcompensate and get too close. It's a bit odd, but otherwise your instincts in the midst of battle are phenomenal."

"Yes, well," Riona paled a bit. "I'm working on that."

"Where did you learn how to fight?"

"My clan," The elf thought carefully, settling on the same edited version of the truth she had already told Aang and the others. "We were nomads. I was trained to be a hunter, to catch food and defend the clan from attack."

"So, where do pointy-eared nomads come from?"

"...very, very far away." Riona fidgeted and glanced out the window. She had no desire to give a lesson in elven history and if she was being honest with herself, she could use a break. "If you don't mind, I think I'd like to see how Aang and the others are doing for awhile."

"Sure, we're not on a time limit. Come back when you're ready." The corner of Suki's lip quirked in a mischievous smile. "Then we can start working on your fall recovery."

 _Great, I get to spend the afternoon hitting the ground._

* * *

"I wonder if there's a village somewhere in Ferelden or Orlais where I could get this kind of treatment." Riona mused. She had wandered into the outskirts of the village in search of privacy and instead stumbled upon a gaggle of young girls swarming a certain bald monk. Aang was hovering above the ground on a sphere of whirling air, his favored 'air scooter' technique. He had a wide grin plastered on his face as his audience squealed and clapped. A fresh wave a preadolescent adulation arose as the young avatar flipped to do a handspring on his scooter. The sphere erupted in gust of wind that launched Aang into the air and rippled through his fans. The elf closed her eyes as the air burst brushed her face and tugged at her hair. The avatar somersaulted and landed on a low branch to another round of cheers.

A part of Riona was still irked by such a casual and flippant use of magical power. Keeper Istamaethoriel had taught the clan to be respectful and wary of magic. Her experiences since becoming Inquisitor had only given her more reasons to be cautious… not that any of them had stopped her from using a dangerous and untested ritual to try and restore her arm, but lesson learned.

"Riona!" Aang zoomed up to her so fast he threw up a cloud of dust in his wake. The elf started so badly she nearly fell over. He was faster than Viviene using Fade Step. "Why are you dressed like that?" Riona blinked at him, only then remembering that she was still wearing the Kyoshi uniform.

"Oh, uh, right, I asked the Kyoshi Warriors to give me some pointers, they said I needed to wear the outfit. Having fun with your… fans?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna go ride the Unagi, wanna come watch?" Riona gaped at him.

"What?! Uh, no, and no you're not that's a terrible idea." The elf put a hand on her hip and fixed Aang with her most commanding stare. _Alright, we're doing this now. I've been meaning to have this conversation._ "You can't just go off risking your life on stupid stunts."

"Oh come on," Aang scowled, though on his face it looked more like a pout. "It'll be fine, I'm the Avatar, right girls!" The fan club, quick on his tail, cheered. Riona began to grind her teeth.

"Exactly, you're the avatar, which means you have some big and important destiny to fulfill right? And you want to jeopardize that for, what, showing off?" The elf sputtered.

"Stop being such a stick in the mud." Aang crossed his arms. "It's nothing I can't handle."

"Stop being such _a child!_ " Riona snapped. The girls were giving her dirty looks now and a few called out encouragements to Aang. A few others had few choice names to call her. The elf shot them a dirty look before turning back to the monk. "Can't you take this seriously?"

"You can't tell me what to do!" The avatar turned away from her in a huff. "Come on girls, let's go."

"I'm trying to help you, Aang!" The elf called out after him and stamped her foot as he led his fan club away. "That-Those-" Her words dissolved in a feral growl. Summoning what self control she could muster, Riona turned around and stomped further into the woods. Her breath came in angry huffs and her pace quickened as she went. A burning vigor entered her limbs. Something had been sparked, frustration at far more than Aang's immaturity serving as kindling. Passing under the shading canopy of the forest, the sounds of the village receded behind her. The sun edged closer to the horizon. Her burning frustration settled into a smoldering ember in her stomach, not dissipating but growing more insistent. Eventually she came to a dusty clearing on the outskirts of the village, far enough that she had privacy. The elf didn't slow down, in fact she broke into a run. The ember in her chest kindled to a flame, Riona leapt into the center of the clearing with a yell and thrust her fist out with the full force of her body behind it. A gout of brilliant flame rushed from her fist across the length of the clearing. She stayed in that pose, muscles straining in tension and sweat starting to bead on her brow.

Then Riona closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She held the anger close, then loosened her grip and let it fall away, the tension in her limbs slackened, if not faded. Her frustration had not evaporated, but it was not controlling her. She shifted into a ready stance, positioned sideways with one foot behind the other, her hands raised defensively. Riona began to work her way through the forms she had learned earlier in the day, a series of strikes and evasions smoothly woven into one another. The repetition of movement soothed her frayed nerves. The acidic burn of her already taxed muscles was familiar. She had spent a lifetime honing her skills as a warrior, Riona knew she could do so again. Her thoughts quieted to a low murmur as she focused totally on her movements, kept herself in the moment. As the elf pushed her body through the motions, the fire in her chest dimmed little by little.

Ultimately, Riona sat down on the ground, the green of the kyoshi uniform pooled around her. She held her gloved hands in front of her face. _These are the hands of a warrior_. The elf sat there for a time, unthinking. She let sensations wash over her. The falling sun warmed her. The creak of rustling branches and distant roar of the ocean tickled at the edge of her hearing. A satisfying warm heaviness replaced the burn in her muscles. The elf breathed deeply.

"...right then." Riona stood and turned in the direction of the village.

* * *

Sokka had not had a good day. He had been humiliated three times: first when Suki and her warriors had captured them without a fight, second when Suki had bested him with ease in front of the other Kyoshi Warrior, and third, not long ago at all, Suki had demanded he wear the traditional Kyoshi Warrior garb as a requirement of learning from her after he swallowed his pride and apologized for dismissing her as a girl. That would not have been so bad, if it was not so… girly, face paint and all.

Still, things were looking up. Sokka had taken to the training like a fish to water. Once he was focused, his wounded pride slipped into the background and he was finally starting to get it. He had even knocked Suki down once, though the flustered girl had immediately claimed she had done so on purpose to make him feel better. He was actually starting to get the hang of this.

"Hi Suki, what's…" _Oh no_ , Sokka thought at the familiar voice, suddenly once again painfully aware of what he was wearing. They both turned to the door to meet the elf's green eyed gaze. To Sokka's surprise, she was also wearing the Kyoshi uniform. He might not have recognized her painted face were it not for her unusual hair and prominent ears. Riona's hand shot up to her mouth to restrain a snigger. "Oh, wow, Sokka, I wasn't expecting to see you here. I never knew you were so… fashionable."

"Yes," Suki stepped forward, her eyes shining with mischief. "Sokka came while you were out, he was hoping to teach us a few moves." At that, Riona snorted and she began to shake with barely contained mirth. "Oh really, well I hope you learned a few things. The first time time we sparred was quite an education." Sokka fumed and opened his mouth to retort, but Suki turned to him thoughtfully.

"Actually, he's been learning fast, how about you two spar? Show me what you've learned today."

"Oh?" Riona cracked her knuckles. "Alright then, I could use a light workout today." Despite himself, Sokka gulped. The elf had planted him headfirst into a snow drift the last time he had challenged her. She moved onto the floor and flashed him a self-assured smile as she settled into a ready posture. "Come on then,"

Contrary to her expectations, Sokka did not make the first move. He mirrored her stance, his brow furrowed in concentration. "You first,"

For a tense moment, they stared at one another. Then Riona moved. The elf crossed the distance between them in a single stride and threw a punch only for her eyes to widen in shock as Sokka moved out of the way and grabbed her wrist, yanking her forward and kicking his leg toward her stumbling feet. She managed to step over his leg with one foot and make an awkward recovery, spinning to put distance between them. The elf stared at the boy, who had a self satisfied look on his face, in disbelief. An ember coaxed to flame, she charged again.

 _I am_ _not_ _going to be beaten by_ _Sokka_ _of all people._ Riona performed a sweeping kick, but the water tribe warrior leapt back. He parried her strikes as she rose, fighting defensively. Her frustration mounted with each blow that failed to connect. _How did he pick up these moves so quickly?!_ Her strikes grew wild and the forms she had practiced with such discipline melted away in favor of attempting to pummel her opponent into submission.

She was quickly made to realize her mistake.

With one overcommitted punch, she left herself vulnerable. Sokka seized her extended arm and twisted it behind her back, eliciting a squeak of pain. The elf was stunned. For a moment, the fire in her threatened to roar to new fury but instead she allowed herself to go limp. _I did it again. I can't fight like I used to and I can't lose control._ Sokka had remained utterly focused throughout their fight. He had remained in control while she had been stuck reacting to him. For all his silliness, Riona had to give him credit. He was raw, but he had good instincts. She would have to follow his example.

"Hah! So I guess this mean I-" He started but was cut off as Riona dropped. Unprepared for the move, Sokka released her arm and the elf lashed out with her foot as she caught herself with her free arm. The blow caught Sokka in the leg, dropping him to a knee. Riona rolled away and whirled to face him.

"That's enough for right now," Both fighters turned their heads to Suki, who was approaching them with a wide grin. Riona allowed herself to relax her stance as her teacher drew closer. "I'm surprised," She whispered when Sokka wouldn't hear. "I didn't expect him to pick things up so quickly. He's got some real talent beneath all that bluster. Don't tell him I said that."

"I wasn't expecting that either." Riona said in a subdued voice, watching the self-proclaimed warrior dust himself off. Suki mistook her reticence for something else and grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, don't get me wrong, you did great once you started taking things seriously. You did very well against someone bigger and stronger than you."

"Story of my life,"

"I can see that." Suki nodded at her, then turned to Sokka. "Well Sokka, ready to keep going? You both have a lot to learn."

They continued to train and spar, the Kyoshi Warrior instructing them on honing their technique. Suki showed them how to better redirect an opponent's force and use it against them. She encouraged the competition between them so that they would push one another, though it took awhile for Riona to realize Suki was trying to force her to take more control over her temper and aggressive instincts. All the other warriors had evidently retired for the day. As the afternoon wore on and the elf watched Suki correct Sokka's stance and roll her eyes good-naturedly at one of his jokes, she found her thoughts turning back to Thedas.

It occurred to Riona that her companions in the Inquisition were nothing like these children. Her friends had long storied pasts that drove them or haunted them. Sokka, Katara, Aang, and even Suki were just coming into their own, learning to understand themselves and their place in the world. None of her companions had been like that, save perhaps Cole, but Cole was Cole. The elf could not help but wonder how they would grow. Sokka clearly had a well of untapped potential beneath his inexperience and buffoonish demeanor. Despite her clear talent and discipline, Suki had never left this island or explored what she could learn from distant lands and peoples. Riona had always appreciated that about her itinerant upbringing among the Dalish. She could only guess at what Katara could accomplish if she ever found a waterbending teacher and Aang…

Well, she had glimpsed what the Avatar State could do.

The thought of bending turned her mind toward her own unexplored abilities. She was no mage, but Riona had known enough of them to see that these talents were not the same. For one, she had never heard of a mage that could only use one type of elemental magic. At the same time, these benders seemed capable of great versatility within that element. Her firebending, a thought that still seemed bizarre to her, was clearly tied to emotion, though movement also seemed a component. Sparks flew at her frustration and fire flared with her rage. So far, she had no shortage of either. Whatever jokes people made of her "fiery" temper would be much more ironic now.

Nobody seemed to fear benders here, not like they did mages in Thedas. Indeed, the coming of the Avatar had been greeted with joy here on Kyoshi Island. From what Aang had told her, benders faced no particular prejudice. Riona wondered just how common benders were in this world. Maybe she could find a teacher to help her manage her firebending...

"Not bad," Suki smiled at Sokka's successful parry. She turned to Riona, "Ready to give it a try?" The elf blinked at her blankly, having missed the move completely.

"Uh, well…" Before she could muster a sheepish apology, a short stocky figure blocked the light in the doorway. Riona recognized him as Oyagi, the village headman that had interrogated her along with Suki when they first arrived. His brows were creased in distress and he was panting. The elf tensed. Something was clearly wrong.

"Firebenders have landed on our shores! Girls, come quickly!"

"But I'm not-" Sokka started as the Suki rushed for the door. Riona fell in behind her almost without thought. The elf had a sick feeling she knew exactly who the firebenders were. "Oh, whatever!"

* * *

The village seemed deserted, with all the inhabitants having either fled into the woods or huddled out of sight in their homes. Suki led them not down the main thoroughfare, but behind the residences of the village. Riona glimpsed the other Kyoshi Warriors gracefully alighting on rooftops and hiding themselves between buildings. It was as she followed Suki through the gap between two structures that the elf saw a familiar scarred face.

The firebender they had met at the South Pole, Zuko she remembered the old man calling him, was riding into the village astride a bulky lizard-like creature with three horns, the upper two curved down while the larger third jutted upward from its snout. _Somewhere_ , Riona thought, _a Tevinter magister is feeling a pang of jealousy_. The beast looked exactly like the sort of dragonic monster that would be quite popular in the Imperium. The horns were fit to spear a man through and the creature's muscular legs looked capable of propelling mount and rider at formidable speed. Three other beasts with two spear bearing riders apiece followed behind him.

"Come out, Avatar!" Zuko shouted at the entrance to the village. "You can't hide from me forever!" He waited, glaring into the village in search of any movement. Riona saw the green clad warriors running toward the soldiers out of view of the main street. Their footfalls were remarkably silent. The elf followed Suki, taking care to stay quiet which slowed her pace. By this time, the firebender's patience had been exhausted. He ordered his soldiers, "Find him!"

The soldiers advanced into the village. When the Kyoshi Warriors sprung their ambush, Riona had fallen behind Suki and was trying to make up the distance, staying low to keep out of sight. She would not have realized the attack was happening any sooner than the soldiers, save that the elf saw the green clad warriors on the roofs leap into the air toward the street out of the corner of her eye.

Riona heard two strangled shouts as the teenage warriors tackled them out of their saddles. As she bent her knees to join them, the elf saw Suki charge ahead and launch herself at Zuko, brandishing two golden fans. With an agility its bulk belied, the firebender's mount spun and smacked her out of the air with its tail, sending her tumbling head over heels. Riona winced in sympathy, but she was already moving to attack.

Zuko launched a blast of fire at the prone Suki, which was batted aside by a fan-wielding Sokka. The firebender did not notice Riona' charge until it was too late. The elf launched herself into the air and collided with his armored torso, knocking them both to the ground. Riona rolled away from the teen and sprung to her feet. Suki and Sokka ran to join her, the three of them surrounding Zuko. His eyes burned with rage. It as a look the elf had seen in the eyes of many of her enemies, indignant that their plans were being disrupted, but it took her a moment to realize what he was about to do.

"Look out!" She shouted and jumped back. Zuko lifted himself up on his hands and executed a spinning kick at the air around him. Fire burst into the air and both her companions were knocked off their feet. Riona had no time to think as the firebender focused his attention on her, she just reacted, dodging and weaving to avoid first one fire blast, then two. Her luck ran out with the third. She was too slow, the blast caught her in the leg and the elf shrieked as she fell. The next gout of fire was already coming at her by the time she looked up. Pain shooting up her leg, her heart pounding with raw animal fear and rage, Riona could do nothing but whip her arm out in front of her as if to ward off the flames. She felt pain in the back of her hand, then...

Lo and behold, the fire dispersed around her flailing limb.

Riona clutched her hand to her chest and grimaced. The flames had burned through the knuckles of her gloves somehow. The burns were painful, but minor. They would heal on their own.

"A firebender?" The elf looked up to see Zuko standing over her. Surprise mingled with the perpetually angry expression on his face. "Who are you?" Riona grit her teeth and struggled to pull her feet under her. She balled her fists and prepared to launch herself at the teenager, but he was already moving. His heel smashed into the side of her head. Her vision swam and she felt herself pitch sideways, but she never felt herself hit the ground.

* * *

When Riona returned to awareness, the wind was brushing her face. She groaned and cradled her pounding head. The sky was still the faded orange of early evening, so she knew not much time had passed. She could also smell smoke, which did not speak well of their success in repelling the firebenders. As the elf raised her head to look at herself, Riona realized that someone had bandaged her hand. Then she saw Katara staring at her, poised to start working off her scorched boot. The waterbender smiled at her in relief.

"You're awake, how are you feeling?"

"Like I got kicked in the head," Riona deadpanned. "What happened?"

"We left, it was the only way to draw Zuko away from the village." Katara turned away from the elf toward what Riona suddenly realized was the front of Appa's saddle. Sokka sat to the side looking worried. She pulled herself up into a sitting position to see the top of Aang's bald head. Katara spoke gently to the airbender.

"Aang, I know it's hard, but you did the right thing. Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we had stayed. They're going to be okay." Aang didn't respond for several long moments. Riona turned her head to look over the side of Appa's saddle. They were over the bay where they had originally arrived on the island. The village was visible for the plumes of smoke rising from it and several rooftops appeared to be smoldering. "What are you doing?!" Riona's head whipped around with Katara's shout, just in time to see Aang plunge off of the flying bison's head, diving deep into the water below.

"Aang!" She blurted out in concern, green eyes searching the water's surface in vain. Sokka and Katara joined her. For a moment, Riona was filled with horror as she remembered the sea monster that inhabited the bay. Her horror turned to terror and then dumbfounded amazement as the great black serpent reared out of the sea with Aang riding atop its head, holding onto its two whiskers. As they watched, the airbender pulled hard on the monstrous creature's whiskers. The Unagi roared in protest and let loose great jet of water from its mouth in the direction of the village. The visible flames vanished under the deluge and the rising smoke thinned. The flying bison lurched beneath them as it swooped toward the airbender. Seeing his friends, Aang launched himself into the air and was caught in Appa's front pair of legs. When he climbed up to the saddle, all three of his companions were staring at him with expressions of mixed shock and excitement. For his part, the airbender shrugged sheepishly as if expecting a lecture.

"I know, I know. That was stupid and dangerous."

"Yes, it was." Katara unexpectedly pulled the boy into a hug. His face lit up with such joy that Riona could not help but chuckle and shake her head in wonder.

"You're really something Aang, I wouldn't have thought of that in a hundred years." Riona truly was impressed, both by his inventive thinking and his skill. There was more to this boy than just being the Avatar. _Maybe he really does have a shot at saving the world, and just maybe he can help me find a way home._

* * *

"Oh, did you decide to take a dip? The water does look beautiful, I was thinking of taking one myself." Iroh told a thoroughly drenched Zuko as he boarded the ship. The Fire Prince was unamused.

"This isn't a vacation, Uncle. Tell the crew to get underway immediately, the Avatar has escaped my grasp again." His eyes scanned the horizon with the intensity of wounded pride. "And something else, one of the Avatar's companions is a firebender, though clearly raw and untrained."

"Really? How strange." Iroh stroked his chin with feigned ignorance. He had not intended to hide that knowledge from Zuko, but he had wanted to get some grasp on the mystery for himself before troubling his nephew with it.

"The pointy eared one with red hair," Zuko turned to look at his uncle. "Have you ever heard of anyone like that?"

"Firebenders outside the Fire Nation are extremely rare, but not unheard of." Iroh advised honestly. "But I have never heard of anyone with those physical features, no. Why the sudden interest, Zuko? You knew this strange girl was accompanying the Avatar."

"My interest is in the Avatar," Zuko replied stiffly but some of the rage had faded from his voice. "I hadn't given much thought to his companions."

"Do not be so focused on your goal that you lose sight of everything else. I believe there's much more to this girl than we know." With that, he turned to go. "Follow me, there's something you should see." He led the prince down to his cabin below deck, where he crouched by a long chest. When Zuko stood in front of the chest, Iroh opened it.

"This sword…" The faint glimmer of spiritual energy reflect in the prince's eyes as he handled the weapon. His volume rose as he spoke. "She attacked us with this in the South Pole!"

"Yes," Iroh nodded. "And left it here on this ship accidentally. I have had an expert I trust examine it, he had never seen such a weapon before. Like our red haired friend, it is unique and inexplicable."

"What does this mean, Uncle?" A note of frustration entered Zuko's voice as he ran a finger down the blade.

"I don't know," Iroh admitted. "But as long as we're on the Avatar's trail, we're bound to meet her again."

* * *

 **Hello, been awhile hasn't it? A lot has happened in my life since my last update: I graduated, got my first full time job, and moved out. All of which has left me very busy, so I can't promise regular updates, just know that I haven't given up on the story.**

 **I think part of the problem, insofar as motivating myself to make time for this, is that Book One is my least favorite season of The Last Airbender and the big changes I initially planned don't start until the end of Book One. So I'm retreading important episodes here because I want to build Riona as a member of Team Avatar rather than to really advance the plot.**

 **Anyway, leave a review if you please, it motivates me.**


	5. Book I - The King of Omashu

**5**

 **~Book One~**

 **Water & The Howling Wind**

 **~Chapter 5~**

 **~The King of Omashu~**

* * *

"Oooog, ugh," Riona groaned quietly as she turned over in her bedroll to stare up at the sky. The sun was just starting to rise, but she had been awake for almost an hour by her reckoning. Her dreams had been getting worse the past few nights, though her recollections of them were always vague. They all seemed to follow along the same lines though: _Dark shadows everywhere, a harrowing chase, long grasping limbs, fangs, eyes…_

Knowing from experience that she would not find sleep again that morning, Riona forced herself to sit up and rub her eyes blearily. The light of the rising sun was beautiful, reflecting off the mountainsides around them. The past week since departing Kyoshi Island had taken them to the southern reaches of the Earth Kingdom, a place that so far was characterized by rugged mountains and few formal roads. These traits, Riona mused as she rose, were likely what had protected the region from the Fire Nation's armies so far. Katara and Sokka had explained to her that the Fire Nation's war of conquest had raged for a hundred years. While they had viciously raided the Southern Water Tribe, the bulk of the Fire Nation's forces were dedicated to fighting the Earth Kingdom, which was losing ground each year. The state of the Northern Water Tribe was unclear, but they had apparently managed better than their southern cousins. That was a question they would have to answer when they arrived.

None of that concerned Riona much right now, as she sat at the edge of a small plateau and looked down into the valley. Flying on Appa meant they could camp in places nobody could find them, so even Riona had been persuaded that a watch was unnecessary most nights. She might as well have volunteered though, for all the sleep she was getting. Though of the things that haunted her, a close second to the nightmares was what always seemed conspicuously absent in them: the wolf.

She knew it was a representation of Solas, or something like that. It had watched her in dreams frequently after her meeting with him during the Exalted Council, never a malicious presence but… inscrutable. Now it was gone and Riona was plagued with terrifying nightmares. There had to be some connection between the two and her arrival in this world, a fact Riona had pondered since her arrival. She still did not understand what her journey to this world had actually done to her.

"Morning," Katara yawned in greeting. She came up beside the elf, who realized the sun was now well above the horizon. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing I can do anything about now," The elf sighed. "Did you sleep well?"

"Great," Katara sat down beside her. "Aang says we're getting close to the City of Omashu,"

"It feels like forever since I've been in a real city," Riona mused.

"You've been to a city before? What's that like?"

"Right," The elf reminded herself that Katara had never left her village before the past few weeks. "Well, they don't smell great, they tend to be overcrowded, then in the nicer parts you'll find there's the overabundance of traders hawking overpriced merchandise…" She trailed off when she saw Katara's expression. "But I'm sure Omashu will be nice, every city has its own… charms."

"You don't sound too enthused," Katara said. Riona shrugged.

"Cities are good for shopping, and sometimes they look pretty. But they've always been a bit much for me." She had never actually liked the Inquisition's new headquarters in Val Royeaux. It always felt hemmed in by the city. There had been a sort of freedom in Skyhold's isolation atop the Frostbacks, it was similar to the way she felt now looking over the valley. "But who knows, maybe Omashu will be a quiet, pleasant place."

* * *

As Riona predicted, she got no more sleep that morning despite attempting to nap after her talk with Katara. The four of them climbed on Appa and flew for several hours before Aang abruptly brought the flying bison down at the base of a small hill. The young airbender dismounted and led them to the crest.

"The Earth Kingdom city of Omashu!" Aang pronounced with a wide grin. Riona's mouth dropped open. The city towered in the distance, carved from the mountains themselves. The walls encompassed several peaks, each covered with structures both humble and palatial. Standing out above the rest were massive arches holding up ramps that twined through the whole city. Riona wondered if they were aqueducts of some kind. In scale, Omashu seemed a only bit smaller than Val Royeaux and the elf marveled at the manpower and ingenuity required to build such a vertical city. Then she reminded herself that this was a city built by people who could move stone with the right combination of focus and body movement.

"I used to always come here to visit my friend Bumi," The Avatar explained happily.

"It's quite a city, Aang." Riona commented, she had to restrain a yawn from her lack of sleep. The wheels of her mind were already turning to practical considerations. "We should be able to find all the supplies we'll need there." _How we'll pay for them will be a problem though…_ The water tribe siblings were still gaping at the stone city.

"They have buildings here that don't melt." Sokka was awestruck. Aang grinned.

"Well, let's go slow pokes! The real fun is inside the city!" The airbender leapt high into the air toward the city.

"Wait, Aang!" Both Riona and Katara called out. His flight abruptly ended and the boy landed just a little ways down the hill. Katara continued, "It could be dangerous if people find out you're the Avatar." Riona refrained from reminding Aang of what had happened on Kyoshi island. This city would not be vulnerable to Zuko the same way Kyoshi had been, but they should keep a low profile all the same. The residents of this city may not be as well disposed to the missing Avatar as the islanders had been.

"You need a disguise," Sokka cut in.

"So, what am I supposed to do?" Aang arched a brow incredulously, a gesture that seemed the accentuate the big blue arrow on his head. "Grow a mustache?" Riona pulled a lock of her crimson hair in front of her face for a cursory inspection.

"I'm pretty conspicuous as well," The elf admitted, brushing hair behind her pointed ear. "I suppose I can stay with Appa…"

"I actually had an idea about that," The waterbender said.

"You really thought ahead," Riona told Katara as she stared at her newly darkened tresses some time later. She had brought the elf to a stream and produced a jar of dark dye from her bag. The elf was vaguely familiar with the idea of dying hair as yet another beautification method used by Orlesian ladies and was hesitant about covering up her natural shade. Ultimately she allowed Katara to help her apply the dye and wash it out after letting it set. It did smell a bit though. "You bought this on Kyoshi?"

"Yeah, I wasn't sure what to do about Aang, but I was talking to one of the villagers in the market and they suggested darkening your hair. I forgot about it after Zuko attacked. It looks good on you by the way."

"Thanks," Riona carefully arranged her hair to cover the tips of her ears. They should stay hidden as long as she refrained from cartwheels. "My face will still stick out."

"Not much more than me and Sokka, we don't look like we're from around here either." A gust of wind spelled the end to their conversation as Aang touched down across the stream from them. The elf stared at him.

"How do I look, ladies?" The airbender looked absurd, with a great bush of what looked like Appa's shed fur stuck to his head and upper lip.

"You look like a deranged old hermit," Riona replied dryly, "or like a big white cat spat you out as a hairball." Katara clamped a hand over his mouth to cover a giggle.

"Well, he did technically spend 100 years alone in the wilderness." The waterbender quipped. Aang spun his staff and abruptly hunched over as if his physical age matched his actual age. Using his staff as a walking stick, the airbender spun on his heel and hobbled in the direction of Omashu.

"Now let's get to skippin', young whippersnappers," He rasped in a fake voice. "The big city awaits!"

* * *

The city's crenelated walls were even more impressive up close than they were from a distance. Riona had studied fortifications quite extensively in her role as Inquisitor, and she actually judged these to be nearly superfluous. The city itself was actually situated some distance up the mountains it was built upon. From the base of the mountains to the city was was a sheer drop. The city was only accessible through a narrow stone path that led straight to the… _Where is the gate?_

The path terminated at a blank stretch of wall flanked by protruding towers. Riona could see figures holding spears behind the battlements. Four men stood at the end of the path with a cart. Three of them were clad in green armor and some sort of wide brimmed helmet with a gold spike on top. The fourth man was smaller, dressed in relatively well fitting clothes. He proffered a cabbage from the cart behind him toward by the soldiers.

"You guys are gonna love Omashu," Aang was practically bouncing as they approached. "The people here are the friendliest in the world."

"ROTTEN CABBAGES!" The four of them came to a stop as the soldier roared at the merchant, he held one of the vegetables in his hand. "What kind of slum do you think this is?!" He crushed the offending cabbage between his hands and knocked the one the merchant was holding off the path toward the mountain base far below. The soldier spread his legs and punched upward into the air. A spire of rock erupted from the ground with tremendous force under the cart, sending it soaring into the air before reaching the apex of its arc and plunging into the chasm. _So that's earthbending..._

"No, my cabbages!" The merchant cried out and fell to his knees by the edge.

"Just keep smiling…" Aang muttered behind a smile that seemed more forced than it was a second ago. As they approached, the lead soldier stepped forward and raised his fist. A boulder rose into the air and hovered over Aang's head.

"State your business!" Before Riona could blink, the airbender had hobbled the distance between them and the soldier, shoving an accusatory finger in his face.

"My business is my business, young man, and none of yours!" He shouted in his fake old man voice. "I've got half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside!" The stone that had been hovering above the path crashed to the ground as the soldier reared back in shock. Riona and the water tribe siblings were at a loss for words, mouths agape in horror at what Aang was doing.

"Settle down, old timer." Thankfully the soldier was just as thrown as they were. "Just tell me who you are."

"Name's Bonzu," Aang responded without missing a beat. It struck Riona with some shock that they had not come up with a cover story, she had not anticipated they would be stopping each traveler. "Pipinpadaloxicopolis… the Third!" He gestured in the direction of his friends. "And these are my grandkids." Katara recovered her composure and stepped forward with a serene smile.

"Hi, I'm June Pipinpadaloxicopolis. Nice to meet you." The soldier pointed at her.

"You seem like a responsible young lady. See that your grandfather stays out of trouble." He stepped aside. "Enjoy Omashu."

"We will, sir." Riona mumbled as she passed, doing her best to play the part of the shy child. It seemed to work. They made it several paces before the soldier called out again.

"Wait a minute," Riona turned with held breath to see that the guard had grabbed Sokka by the shoulder. "You're a strong young boy. Show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfather's bag!" The elf exhaled.

"Good idea!" Aang tossed his bag to Sokka and the other boy hurried to catch up. For a moment, the four of them stood awkwardly in front of the wall. Riona glanced at the young avatar, who was staring ahead expectantly. Then the ground began to shake and before her eyes a perfect vertical fissure opened as the rock and wall parted. There were actually three walls, she saw, each one parting in succession to allow their passage.

"This city may just be impregnable…" Riona muttered under her breath. "Earthbending is incredible…" The ground rumbled again as the wall closed behind them. The city towered above them. People in various shades of green dress bustled across bridges and walkways linking the many towers and complexes. All of the buildings were stone and most of them had vibrant green tiled roofs. The titanic structures Riona had assumed to be aqueducts of some kind actually seemed to be ramps. Carts coasted down and, in defiance of gravity, some actually flew to the upper reaches of the city along the stone chutes. Riona could only gape in astonishment at it all. "Wow."

"This is the Omashu delivery system." Aang supplied to his flabbergasted friends. "Miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earthbending brings the packages up and gravity brings them down."

"So they get their mail on time." Sokka seemed to be doing his best to sound unimpressed. The elf rolled her eyes at him but Aang interrupted before she could tell the boy off.

"They _do_ get their mail on time." The airbender bobbed his head. "But my friend Bumi found a better use for these chutes…" A wistful smile came over his face, probably remembering his friend, someone that must have died decades ago… Looking at Aang then, Riona was struck with the familiarity of the expression. Solas had the same look on his face when he talked about the ancient elves and old friends. She had not understood that he was speaking of personal memories rather than knowledge gleaned from the Fade, but the warmth of fond remembrance was clear on Aang's face.

"Which was?" She prodded gently. He turned toward them with a broad grin.

"The world's greatest super slide!"

"...what?"

* * *

"This a terrible idea, Aang," Riona told the airbender flat out. Scarcely letting them get a word in edgewise, the young avatar had led the four of them up through the streets to a loading point by one of the huge ramps. He leapt into an empty stone cart without a moment's hesitation. Katara and Sokka followed with considerably more apprehension. Only Riona stood outside the cart, with Momo clinging to her shoulder and her arms crossed defiantly. The lemur had smuggled itself into the city inside Aang's improvised wig and he too seemed a bit leery of Aang's idea.

"Don't worry, Riona," He gave her a winning smile. "I've done this before, I know what I'm doing."

"That doesn't mean it's a good idea." Riona sighed in exasperation. "Go ahead, but keep me out of it."

"Come on Riona," Aang whined. "You'll be missing out, right Momo?" The lemur, apparently persuaded by his words or just reacting to his name, leapt from Riona's shoulder to alight on Aang's towering white wig. The elf pursed her lips.

"No."

"I'm kinda starting to have second thoughts too, actually." Katara squirmed, trying not to look down. Half the city was sprawled out below them from here.

"Don't be like that girls, when's the next time you'll be able to do something like this, this is the only place like it in the whole world!" The elf stared hard at the baby-faced airbender's pleading expression… and felt herself start to cave.

"Fine, just the once." She squeezed herself between the water tribe siblings. It was a tight fit, but maybe that would help keep anyone from falling out.

"One ride, then we're off to the North Pole, Airbender's honor."

"After we get supplies, we need to take advantage of this opportunit _eeeeeeeee_!" Her interjection petered out into a shriek as Aang's airbending propelled them forward and into the near vertical drop of the stone ramp, plunging fast and gaining speed. Riona's knuckles turned white as she gripped the sides of the cart. Sokka sputtered as the wind whipped her dark dyed hair into his face. The elf was torn between wanting to squeeze her eyes shut and her trained instinct to stay aware of her surroundings.

"Ah!" Sokka screamed in her ear and suddenly he was pushing her forward, pressing her down into his sister's back.

"What are you-" She cut herself off as she twisted to look behind her. A second cart had entered the ramp behind them, this one carrying two racks of spears arranged horizontally, their points directed downhill. Inches separated their gleaming sharp points from Sokka's back and they were getting closer. Despite herself, Riona screamed, half in fear and half in rage. _I AM THE INQUISITOR, I REFUSE TO DIE IN SUCH A STUPID SENSELESS WAY!_

"I'm on it! I'm on it!" Aang shouted and suddenly they started rocking back and forth. _He wouldn't…_ But he did. Moments later, the cart derailed and they were in freefall. Riona officially gave up on stopping her shrieks of terror. They slammed into a nearby roof, tearing through the uniform green tiles, before skimming across the ground. Riona thought she glimpsed a gathering of soldiers, and the shattering of her hopes to keep a low profile might have concerned her if she was not more worried about getting out of this with her neck intact. By some trick of airbending, the heavy stone cart actually bounced up and through a railing to rejoin one of the mail system chutes.

"Aang!" Katara shouted. "Do something! Use your airbending!"

"Yeah, good idea!" Aang spoke as if totally oblivious to his companion's panic. "That'll make us go even faster!" Riona was in no state to do anything except scream even more as the city whipped by them even more rapidly than before. The ramp sloped downward again and the cart went into another dive. At the base of the slope appeared to be another unloading station. All four of them breathed a sigh of relief as the attendant earthbenders removed the cart from their path, only to scream as the ramp seemed to vanish and a new cart rose to take its place. There was no time. The collision was inevitable. Riona was wrenched from the cart and suddenly she was flying through the air. Her limbs flailed helplessly through the air, then the air itself seemed to be pushing her. Aang spun ahead of his companions, somehow bringing them into perfect alignment. The elf was entirely helpless, only able to let the airbender guide her back into the cart. Suddenly she was squeezed between the water tribe sibling again as they fell into the cart just before it slammed into a rooftop. Green tiles went flying as the grinded down the sloped roof.

Riona could barely see a thing in front of them beyond Katara's back. All she could tell was that they flew off the roof only to crash through a window, then out another. Aang hollered an apology as they were airborne again. They crashed down onto a balcony and sliding through the parlor of a very distressed looking upper class family. Riona knew she should be working out some way to get out of this safely, but in truth it was all she could manage to cling to the side of the cart for dear life as they skidded through the room towards another balcony. They smashed through the balcony and dropped. All four of them screamed. There was a bone jarring crash as the cart broke through something made of wood and they tumble out of it. Riona could only stare up at the sky in a daze.

"My cabbages!" A voice said, mortified. "You're gonna pay for this!" The elf raised her head woozily and saw the same green clad soldiers surrounding them.

"Two cabbages, please." Aang offered them a sheepish smile, his disguise long gone and arrow tattoos visible to all. Riona could only groan, too exhausted to worry about escaping their impending arrest.

* * *

Riona was too shaken by their near fatal slide experience to put up any resistance as the soldiers pulled her up and marched them up through the city streets to a grand structure at the apex. The interior was as grand as the city itself, with soaring ceilings and columns. Everything in the main hall was some shade of green, a color Riona was starting to realize must be either the official color of the city if not the Earth Kingdom itself.

At the end of the hall was a throne where the city's ruler sat. Or at least Riona assumed he was the ruler, the soldiers escorted them into the hall with surprisingly little ceremony. The elf tried to take his measure as they were forced to her knees. The king was an ancient man, she had never seen one that looked older short of Xenon the Antiquarian. His wrinkled and liver spotted visage leered across the room at them with surprisingly alert eyes.

"Your Majesty," One of the guards began, "these juveniles were arrested for vandalism, traveling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages." _Is that a real crime here?_

"Off with their heads!" Riona started at the shout before looking to see the merchant from earlier. She had not even notice him accompany them. "One for each head of cabbage!"

"Silence! Only the king may case judgement. What is your judgement, Sire?"

"Hmm," The king scrutinized each of them in turn. It was only as he laid his eyes on her that Riona realized that her hair was in disarray and the points of her ears were clearly visible. That did not matter now, given Aang's undisguised airbender tattoos.

"Throw them…" The king began and Riona started running through the possibilities of escaping from a dungeon. Of course, it could be the cells were made of stone and would only open with earthbending. If the sentence was only for a few days, they might just be better off waiting it out. "...a feast."

"Wait, what?" Riona blurted out. She cast a bewildered look around. A groan of collective confusion and exasperation went up among the guards, the one who appeared to be in charge actually ran his hand down his face. Nonetheless, the servants did not hesitate to carry out their king's command. Before they knew it, the avatar and his companions were on their feet and the stone binders they had worn around their hands fell to the ground. There was much bustle as the servants carried out a large table and rushed to fill it with food. From the guards' expressions, leaving still wasn't an option. So Riona and her friends sat awkwardly in front of the platters of food. At some point in the commotion the king had risen from his throne and walked around behind them. A gnarled hand with a surprisingly firm grip fell on Riona's shoulder.

"The people in my city have gotten fat from too many feasts," The old king chuckled and plucked a chicken drumstick from one of the plates. "So I hope you like your chicken with no skin." He proffered it to Aang, who shook his head.

"Thanks, but I don't eat meat."

"How about you? I bet you like meat." The old man turned to the elf and before she could reply the drumstick was abruptly shoved into her mouth. Riona let out a muffled protest and made to spit it out before the juicy savory sensations in her mouth registered. _Creators, I haven't eaten proper meat since that terrible seal jerky Sokka brought from the South Pole._ Riona snatched the drumstick from her mouth then took another bite out of it, suddenly ravenous. The king smiled at her and nodded before moving back towards the far side of the table.

"Is it just me or is this guy's crown a little crooked?" Katara whispered and draw circles in the air with her finger next to her head. Riona swallowed the last bit of chicken and reached for a new drumstick.

"A bit, but if he keeps feeding us like this and doesn't execute us that could be a good thing." She said just before biting into another succulent morsel of chicken. The king settled into his chair across the table from them.

"So, tell me young bald one, where are you from?"

"I'm from… Kangaroo Island." Aang answered. Riona assumed it to be a cover story, unless that really did happen to be the name of the area the Southern Air Temple was built on. _If we get out of this I'll need to make them memorize a cover story before entering another settlement,_ the elf thought ruefully as she chewed.

"Oh, Kangaroo Island eh?" The king quirked an eyebrow. "I hear that place is really hoppin!" Dead silence reigned after the king's pronouncement. Riona glanced between him and Aang, feeling like she had missed a joke. The feeling deepened when Sokka broke out with a snort of laughter.

"What? It was pretty funny." He muttered weakly when the other three stared at him.

"What's a kangaroo?" Riona muttered, mostly to herself. Across the table, the elderly king stretched his arms and yawned.

"Well, all these good jokes are making me tired, guess it's time to hit the hay." At first Riona thought the king was about to stand, but with agility she would not have expected from such an old man he flung something across the table straight at Aang. The airbender reared back, waving his hands out in front of him. A gust of wind tugged at Riona's hair as the chicken stopped in mid air in front of Aang, the airbender almost toppling out of his seat in the process. _Oh no._

"There's an airbender in our presence." The king announced to the hall triumphantly. "And not just any airbender, the Avatar! Now, what do you have to say for yourself Mr. Pipinpadaloxicopolis?" Aang dropped the drumstick and stared in dumbfounded shock for a moment, then a nervous smile crept over his face and he stood with arms stretched wide.

"Okay, you caught me. I'm the Avatar. Doing my Avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out." Sang stopped to look under the table, then popped back up nodding. "No firebenders here. So, good work, everybody!" His arms fell on Riona and Katara's shoulders and the three of them started walking backwards toward the exit. "Love each other, respect all life, and don't run with your spears. We'll see you next time!" Riona heard footsteps and shifting armor behind them. She did not have to turn to know that the guards were blocking their path.

"You can't keep us here," Katara stepped toward the the king and challenged him. "Let us leave." The king quirked an eyebrow.

"Lettuce leaf?"

"Be quiet and let me try," Riona muttered to the others before stepping out in front of them. She straightened her back and assumed her best courtly posture, as Josephine had taught her. "Your majesty, I beg that you listen to my plea. The Avatar is a friend of the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation has encroached on the lands of the Earth Kingdom and terrorized its people for a century. Aang is here now to help right that wrong, but he still needs to master the elements. So I implore you, please help speed us on our way to the North Pole for the sake of Omashu and the Earth Kingdom." The elf bowed her head and held her breath. Silence reigned as everyone in the room seemed surprised by her speech. The king squinted at her with interest. Riona had no idea what he was thinking. Abruptly, the king smiled.

"Tomorrow the Avatar will face three deadly challenges, then we will see. But for now, the guards will show you to your chamber."

* * *

The guards lead the foursome down into the palace, presumably into the mountain itself. Riona felt drained. She had thought her diplomatic experience might actually be able to help, but it seemed this king was set on a particular plan for the young avatar. The king was clearly a very old man, perhaps he had grown bitter after all the years of hoping for the avatar to return. Either way, Riona did not see a way out at the moment. The guards showed them into a dim circular chamber with four large comfortable beds. That made Riona blink, she had spent her fair share of time in dungeons and this did not look like one.

"This is a prison cell? Buts it's so nice." Katara echoed her thoughts.

"He did say it was newly refurbished." Aang replied.

"It's not a dungeon, so maybe he still wants you on his good side?" Riona shrugged, her eyes drifted longingly to the nearest bed.

"Then why does he want me to do deadly tests?" Aang retorted. The elf could only shrug in response.

"I don't know, I don't really understand this king…"

"That was impressive by the way, talking to the king like that." Katara looked on her companion with new appreciation. "Have you done something like this before?"

"A friend gave me a few tips about orating at royalty." Riona sat down at the edge of a bed. "I only hoped it means the same thing here, but I guess this king has a bone to pick with the avatar."

"I wonder what the challenges will be." Aang pondered aloud.

"We're not sticking around to find out. There's gotta be some way outta here." Katara paced impatiently, but Riona was not awake to see Aang's attempts to push a bloated Momo into the ventilation ducts or to see her friends give up and retire to sleep. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation of the past few days, maybe it was the adrenaline from their death defying cart ride wearing off, or maybe it was having the best meal she had had in weeks settle in her stomach as she lay on a proper bed, but by whatever combination Riona fell into a deep slumber the moment her head touched the pillow.

* * *

 _Snow lay thick on the ground and the sun hung low in the sky, casting patchwork shadows through the barren trees. Though snow yet fell from the sky and Riona wore little more than a green summer dress, she was not cold. The elf, now as her fully grown self, knelt by a stream, filling a bucket with water. For a time, Riona merely stared down at the stream. She watched how the fading light played over the water and the stones beneath the surface. All anxiety, frustration and tension seemed impossibly far away. Her bucket filled, Riona stood and lifted her eyes. A wolf stood silently in the woods across the stream, its fur black as night. It's gaze bore into her unblinking._

" _So there you are." Riona sighed. "Have you been looking for me?" The wolf did not respond. It turned away from her and walked into the woods. "Wait!" Riona started forward and dropped the bucket she had been holding. It clattered into the rocky stream. "Don't run from me now, Solas. Help me understand what's going on!" It did not stop, but rather than fading into the woods as he had on previous occasions, the wolf had set out at a sedate pace and left a clear path behind him. It looked back at her briefly before continuing, which was all the invitation she needed. The elf stepped across the stream and followed._

 _The barren trunks grew closer together as the path wound between them. The stark branches gave way to evergreen needles and soon Riona lost sight of the wolf altogether. Nonetheless she pushed forward, literally through the branches that grew thicker in her path as she progressed. The elf muscled past them with her arms before her, protecting her head and face. The trees began to change again, becoming more suited to a warmer climate and then to some she only recognized from her recent travels. Abruptly she stumbled out of the trees, barely catching herself before falling flat on the ground. Riona stood atop a plateau with no wolf in sight, but the ground shook beneath her feet. She edged as close to the edge of the plateau as she dared. The cliff plunged over a hundred feet straight down into a valley. A pair of massive beings grappled with one another below, but neither had any arms or legs. They were great wisps of energy, one white and the other black, twisting around one another in a struggle for dominance. Each had a pattern to them on that passed for a face. The white being seemed to have the upper hand, but a tiny human figure appeared at the opposite end of the valley._

" _Who's that?" Riona whispered to nobody in particular. The figure interceded in the fight, blasting the white spirit with a plume of fire. It's hold was broken. The black spirit seemed to grow in size as its pale twin dwindled. Then everything changed. All at once the clouds moved across the sky rapidly, the sun setting and rising again and again, all the combatants vanished. It became darker. The valley changed. Though her own vantage point remained the same, a new range of mountains sprung up around the field. Two great beams of energy sprung from the ground in the middle of the valley, bathing the area in a strange glow. A figure emerged from one of the beams riding something that reminded Riona of a halla but with less elaborate horns. Astride the creature rode the same man that had interfered before. Hardly had he exited the beam when a plume of blackness emerged from the other._

 _Riona gasped. The black spirit had dramatically grown in size, utterly dwarfing everything in the surrounding area. Dark tendrils coiled in the air around it as the entity towered over the man. Then the battle commenced. The man let loose great bursts of fire at the spirit, who did not fly so much as flow through the air to avoid them. He moved in what by now Riona recognized as bending techniques. After being lashed aside by the monstrous spirit, the man was tossed along the ground. He stood and shouted something in the direction of his fallen possessions and a tiny white being streaked toward him. It was the same being that had been fighting the black spirit, now frail and diminished. It was only visible to Riona at all from her perch far above the battlefield because of its bright white shine. When the spirit reached the man, he reared back and struck out toward the black entity with gusts of wind._

" _Two elements," Riona grew pale at the implications. "The avatar? Then…" The scene before her began to fade, the battle blurring to incoherent shifting colors. "Aang is an abomination?"_

* * *

"Sire, this one won't wake up."

"Hm." Bumi scrutinized the strange girl as she lay on a bench outside the main hall. Her expression was utterly serene and her hair splayed out beneath her clearly revealed her pointed ears. His guard had quietly taken Aang's companions from their rooms. The two water tribe children had struggled but this girl would not wake up even when his guards were trying to wake her up. The girl was certainly a puzzle, not only for her appearance but for her surprisingly verbose attempt to address him as a king. Such talents could serve Aang well on his journey, but her mysterious origins made her motives uncertain. It was clear why two children from the Southern Water Tribe would want to help the Avatar, less so this girl. Bumi would have liked to ask her about her origins, but of course he could not at the moment and Aang was being led to the hall even now.

"She must have had a tough day." He gave a toothy grin to his guards. "Take her with the others, have someone carry her, but don't put the jennamite on her. The other two will be enough." With that, Bumi strode into his throne room moments before the Avatar was led through the main door.

"First, Avatar, what do you think of my new outfit? I want your honest opinion."

* * *

 _Once more, Riona found herself standing in snow. This time she stood in a valley rather than overlooking one, snowy peaks surrounding the flat plain. The wolf sat before her, a dark blot on the otherwise pristine snowscape._

" _What are you trying to tell me!?" Riona snapped at her guide. "That Aang is dangerous? Becoming an abomination twists both person and spirit alike, I know but…" The elf thought back on all her time with the boy since finding him in the iceberg. "He's just a boy." Even as the words left her mouth, Riona found herself dwelling on their initial escape from Zuko and when Aang had discovered the body of his mentor at the Southern Air Temple. When Aang's avatar spirit overtook him, he ceased to be the boy she was coming to know._

 _The wolf simply stared at her. Riona ground her teeth._

" _If you aren't going to give me any answers, then what's the point? Why won't you talk to me!?" Her voice rose to a shriek and it abruptly struck her that she had returned to her child form. She raised her small hands in front of her and shook them in the wolf's direction. "And maybe you could explain this too?!"_

 _The wolf tilted its head at her, and Riona thought she could see something like pity in its eyes. That might have been wishful thinking. It raised its head to the sky, pointed directly at the sun. Riona shielded her eyes and followed its gaze. As she watched, the sun's passage began to accelerate across the sky. It sped to the horizon, the world darkened and stars appeared. Shortly, light began to grow on the opposite horizon. The sun emerged from behind the mountains and on it went. It took several repetitions for Riona to notice that the sun's journey was subtly closer to the horizon with each day that passed. She continued to watch the sun rise and set, until it became apparent that the trend had reversed itself, the sun growing higher in the sky each day._

" _The winter solstice," At her words, the sun came to a dead stop at midday. The elf turned to look at the wolf. "The sun doesn't move that much over a couple days in reality, so that's what you wanted me to notice?" The wolf closed its eyes and bowed its head._

" _Okay, well… that's something." The world began to fade again._

* * *

The first thing that told Riona she was awake was the rumbling stone beneath her head. The elf rubbed her head as she sat up. She appeared to be behind a waist high enclosure of some kind. The cavernous stalactite peppered ceiling indicated a larger room than she could see. Again the ground beneath her shook and great crashes assaulted her ears. "What's going on?"

"Riona! You're awake!" Riona follow Katara's voice did a double take. The waterbender and her brother were covered by crystals of some kind. Only their heads and feet were free.

"What happened to you?" The elf gawked in bewilderment. She started getting to her feet. "Where's Aang?!"

"He's fighting the king." Sokka nodded toward the room shaking crashes. "He put this creeping crystal stuff on us and said he would take it off if Aang beat his challenges."

"The king?" Riona squinted over the stone balcony. She found Aang quickly, the arrow-headed boy dodging stone projectiles. The man standing opposite him was one of the most muscular men Riona had ever seen, leaping about almost as nimbly as the airbender. The elf had to do another double take because the man's face did indeed belong to the elderly king. "That's the king?!"

"Yup,"

"What happened while I was asleep!?"

* * *

While Riona was still trying to grasp the situation, Aang and the king fought to a standstill. The airbender shortly figured out that this quirky king was none other than Aang's quirky childhood friend Bumi, now over a hundred years old. It was hard to believe, but after the two old friends had embraced Bumi revealed that the creeping crystal was merely candy. What's more, the king had provided them with supplies and money for their travels. Riona was too busy processing what had just happened, both in and out of her dream, to object to the king's absurdity. So she was surprised when the king approached her and took her aside.

"So, you're name is Riona. And where might you come from?"

"Very far away," She told him tiredly. He had seen her ears, there was no use pretending to be normal. "And I'm not sure how to get there from here."

"Hmm," The bug eyed monarch stroked his chin. "I see, is that why you are traveling with Aang?"

"That was the idea." Riona nodded. "He invited me to come with him to see if I could find out more about how to get home. In the meantime, I decided to help him any way I could."

"He may need that help," Bumi said. Riona arched an eyebrow. "You thought fast on your feet. You thought about what I would want and tried to appeal to me as a king. That's what I want Aang to understand, this fight isn't just going to be about, well, fighting." The old king shrugged. "Keep that in mind. Oh, and maybe take fewer long naps."

"Right," Riona coughed awkwardly and felt her cheeks warm with embarrassment. "Thanks." Bumi cackled and walked off. The elf shook her head at him, wondering.

"Ready to go?" Katara walked up to her laden with supplies. Riona nodded.

"Say, Katara, do you know when the winter solstice is?"

"Uh, I think it should be soon," Katara blinked at her in confusion. "It's a big deal at the South Pole, but the sun is different here, so I'm not sure exactly. Why?"

"No reason," the elf shrugged and picked up supplies. "Let's go."

* * *

 **So, that's how Riona met Bumi, with a dash of foreshadowing. As always, leave your feedback, tell me what you think and maybe even what you would like to see. I'm open to working it into my plans.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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